US ignoring evidence Russia is helping Iran because it trusts Putin, says Zelenskyy

The US has ignored compelling evidence that Russia has been helping Iran to target US bases in the Middle East because it “trusts” Vladimir Putin, according to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.Speaking in an interview with Alastair Campbell on The Rest is Politics podcast, Zelenskyy said he had tried to draw the White House’s attention to the close collaboration between Moscow and Tehran.He said Russian military satellites had photographed critical energy infrastructure objects in the Gulf states and in Israel, as well as the locations of US army bases across the region. The Kremlin passed details and images to the Iranian regime, he said, to facilitate its attacks.“I said this publicly. Did we hear a reaction from the US to Russia that they have to stop it?” Zelenskyy asked rhetorically. He added: “The problem is they trust Putin. And it’s a pity.”Zelenskyy said Donald Trump’s team had failed to “really understand the details of what Russia wants”.Asked why this was, he said that Trump’s two negotiators – Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner – had “spent too much time” with Putin and his senior officials.The pair travelled to Moscow five times last year and have yet to visit Kyiv. The Trump administration has piled pressure on Ukraine to cede its eastern Donbas region, the scene of intense fighting. Putin has suggested he would agree to a ceasefire if Ukraine gave up the territory.Zelenskyy said he had a greater understanding of the Russian leader’s psychology and actual war aims than the White House. Ukraine’s president said Putin would not stop if he got the Donbas, and would next try to seize the regional capitals of Dnipro and Kharkiv.“We have to recognise that partially Americans are feeling that [Donbas is] nothing for us,” Zelenskyy said.“They don’t want to recognise that Putin will lie to them and that he can continue the occupation even after such steps. The Americans are sure that they can trust Putin.”Zelenskyy described the trip by the US vice-president, JD Vance, to Budapest on Tuesday and Wednesday to campaign for Hungary’s president, Viktor Orbán, as “not helpful”.But he said he did not intend to interfere in Sunday’s elections, saying it was up to the Hungarian people to decide which party to back.Zelenskyy also suggested that Europe needed to maximise its power at a time when the US was threatening to withdraw from Nato. The EU needed to join forces with Ukraine, the UK, Turkey and Norway, he said, to create a military bloc big enough to deter Russia.“Without Ukraine and Turkey, Europe will not have a similar army that Russia has. With Ukraine, Turkey, Norway and the UK, you will control security on the seas, not one sea,” he said, adding that he was sure Kyiv would one day join the EU.