Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that he believes President Trump is capable of bringing Russia’s war against Ukraine to an end, while also acknowledging discomfort with what he described as Trump’s approach toward Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Speaking in an interview with “Piers Morgan Uncensored” posted on YouTube, Zelensky expressed confidence in Trump’s intentions to stop the conflict, even as he admitted uncertainty about Trump’s personal dealings with the Kremlin leader.

“I trust him [Trump] … he really wants to end this war, and I trust that he really can end this war,” the Ukrainian president said during the interview.

At the same time, Zelensky made clear he is unsure how to interpret Trump’s rapport with Putin.

“But I don’t know, to speak about his relationship with Putin,” Zelensky added.

Zelensky explained that he cannot “really estimate or understand” the nature of Trump’s ties with the Russian president, though he stressed that the issue is not simply about confidence.

“[T]hey have some relations, I’m sure and that’s why for me, sometimes it’s very, very painful that his attitude to Putin is sometimes, to put it, more good than Putin deserves,” Zelensky said.

Since returning to office, Trump has communicated directly with Putin in an effort to broker an end to the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II.

The two leaders have spoken multiple times by phone and met in Alaska last October for negotiations that ultimately did not produce a peace agreement.

Their diplomatic efforts did lead to a brief, one-week cease-fire earlier this year. However, Zelensky’s government accused Russia of breaching the truce just days after it began, citing a brutal strike on a Ukrainian energy facility during freezing winter conditions.

Trump, for his part, maintained that Putin “kept his word” and did not violate the agreement.

As the four-year mark of Russia’s invasion approaches, Zelensky described a war-weary population eager for resolution but determined to preserve national honor.

“People are tired, yes, people want to finish with this tragedy… to end this war, as quickly as possible of course, but in the right way not to loose dignity in any way,” Zelensky said.

He also confirmed that the next round of three-way negotiations will once again be held in Switzerland, the same venue as the previous talks, a location he views as significant.

“If the war is in Europe … Europeans, they have to feel that this is aggression against us and Europe … this why peace negotiations have to be in Europe,” he said.

According to Zelensky, the parties are moving closer to consensus on mechanisms to supervise a potential cease-fire. However, sharp disagreements remain over the fate of territory in eastern Ukraine.

“We don’t have the same view even trilaterally – we have three different views – on the land question,” Zelensky said.

Addressing proposals that Ukrainian forces pull back from the Donbas region, he rejected the idea as unjust and dangerous to Ukraine’s future security.

“We can’t just withdraw … it’s not fair,” he said of removing troops from Ukraine’s Donbas region, framing it as part of his country’s security guarantee against a possible Russian invasion in the future.

Zelensky added that Moscow is pressing Kyiv to relinquish control of heavily fortified cities in the Donbas.

He also characterized Putin’s so-called “red lines” — including Ukraine’s potential NATO membership or the presence of NATO troops on Ukrainian soil — as rooted in the Russian leader’s broader expansionist aims.

“They’re thinking that they will come again,” he said of the Kremlin.

Despite enduring what he called a “difficult, terrible winter,” marked by sustained Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid that left civilians in freezing conditions without electricity, Zelensky insisted that Moscow failed to achieve meaningful battlefield progress.

“There were no successful steps on the battlefield,” Zelensky said of Russia’s winter military campaign, claiming that the aggressors lost up to 35,000 troops per month to death or injury.

When asked whether he would ever authorize Ukrainian forces to kill Putin if given the chance, Zelensky hesitated, indicating he likely would not approve such an action but stopping short of ruling it out entirely.

He suggested that even if Putin were replaced, the successor would be just “the same as Putin.”