Zelenskyy on Bakhmut, Putin and the future of Ukraine (Full Interview).

"Journalists from The Associated Press spent two days traveling by train with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as he visited the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, which still faces regular shelling from Russian forces, and northern towns in the Sumy region that were liberated shortly after the war began a year ago. Here is Zelenskyy's full interview with AP Executive Editor Julie Pace" (Mar 31, 2023).

Mail Online: "President Zelensky admits he will be under pressure to 'compromise' with Putin if Russian forces take the city of Bakhmut, as Ukrainians start to 'feel tired' after a year of war Zelensky said that losing Bakhmut to Russia would push 'society to feel tired', He warned Putin would use a victory in Bakhmut to 'sell his victory to the West' He also invited China's President to Kyiv after Xi met Putin in Moscow.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned defeat in the battle for Bakhmut would enable Russia to start building international support for a deal that would require his nation to make unacceptable compromises.

Zelensky said if the eastern city of Bakhmut fell to Russian forces after a protracted battle, president Vladimir Putin would 'sell this victory to the West, to his society, to China, to Iran'.

'If he will feel some blood - smell that we are weak - he will push, push, push,' he told the Associated Press, adding that a loss anywhere at this stage in the war could put Ukraine's hard-fought momentum at risk.

'We can't lose the steps because the war is a pie - pieces of victories. Small victories, small steps,' he said.

'Our society will feel tired. Our society will push me to have compromise with them.'

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is worried that a loss in Bakhmut would mean 'our society will feel tired. Our society will push me to have compromise with [Russia]'

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is worried that a loss in Bakhmut would mean 'our society will feel tired. Our society will push me to have compromise with [Russia]'

Some in the West - including former president and 2024 candidate Donald Trump - have questioned whether Washington should continue to supply Ukraine with billions of dollars in military aid and Zelensky worries the war could be impacted by shifting political forces in Washington. 'The United States really understands that if they stop helping us, we will not win,' he said.

The Ukrainian president also extended a diplomatic invitation to China's President Xi Jinping, who just weeks ago met with Putin at the Kremlin for a day of talks, calling him a 'dear friend' and signing a slew of agreements designed to strengthen the Sino-Russian relationship.

'We are ready to see him here,' Zelensky said of Xi.

'I want to speak with him. I had contact with him before full-scale war. But during all this year, more than one year, I didn't have.'

China, economically and politically aligned toward Russia, has provided Putin diplomatic cover by staking out an official position of neutrality in the war.

Xi has been clear about wanting to bring about an end to the war and has proposed a peace plan, but it was dismissed by Ukrainian authorities because it suggested that Kyiv cede territory to Russia to achieve a ceasefire.

While Zelensky acknowledged the war has 'changed us', he said it has made his society stronger.

'It could've gone one way, to divide the country, or another way - to unite us,' he said. 'I'm thankful to everybody - every single partner, our people, thank God, everybody - that we found this way in this critical moment for the nation.

'Finding this way was the thing that saved our nation, and we saved our land. We are together.'