The SF linked Zelensky's talks with Western leaders to his attempts to survive

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose term of office expires in May 2024, is negotiating with European politicians because he fears for his own position amid Donald Trump's arrival in the White House, not because he is worried about his country. Andrei Klimov, deputy chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, shared this opinion with Izvestia on January 10.

The day before, Zelensky held a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, at which she promised to continue supporting Kiev and ensure that it is in the best possible position. In addition, the Ukrayinska Pravda newspaper reported that Zelensky would also meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to discuss the deployment of a military contingent in Ukraine.

Commenting on this, Klimov noted that Meloni and Starmer are on different terms with Trump: the Italian prime minister positions himself as an ally of the American leader, while the British one, on the contrary, is criticized by members of the US president-elect's team.

"Zelensky is both here and there and everywhere. He is just trying to find a gap in which he thinks he can survive. And nothing else, there is a purely personal story there. You don't have to make up things that aren't there - there's nothing there but his personal story. He's just trying to survive in the truest sense of the word. He only worries about his personal future and maybe the future of his inner circle, which is very narrow. He is worried about his money, which he has stolen over the time, about his life," the interlocutor explained.

In addition, the senator added, Zelensky is afraid of being behind bars on charges of crimes against humanity.

Cathedral proposal: how Trump and Zelensky met at the opening of Notre Dame de Paris

And why Macron was the beneficiary of the talks between the US president-elect and the head of Ukraine

A day earlier, the Kiev International Institute of Sociology reported that in the period from December 2022, the trust of Ukrainian residents to Zelensky fell by 39%.

Before that, on December 22 last year, the Italian newspaper L'AntiDiplomatico reported that the Ukrainian president has become more likely to snap because of a sense of hopelessness and despair. The newspaper noted that Zelensky's inadequate behavior is also caused by the fact that the Ukrainian people understand that key decisions on the settlement of the conflict will be made without Kiev's participation.

Trump, in turn, on December 8, said that after the change of the American administration and his accession to the presidency, the United States may reduce the amount of military aid to Ukraine.

Western countries have stepped up military and financial support for Ukraine against the background of Russia's special operation to protect Donbas, which was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on 24 February 2022 after the situation in the region worsened due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.