'I would like us to have a Disneyland': Zelensky spoke about the plans and problems of Ukraine

In an interview with the influential magazine The New York Times, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke about how Ukraine is fighting the coronavirus and why it spends so much money on roads during the pandemic. He also mentioned the results of Ukraine's cooperation with the United States under President Donald Trump and expectations from President Joe Biden, as well as his relations with the oligarchs. What else did the president talk about? with the BBC.

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“Infrastructure is a showcase”

In his interview, Vladimir Zelensky paid a lot of attention to infrastructure development, both this year and in the future.

He explained the urgent need for this by the fact that it actually "did not exist."

“More precisely, she was, but I was very ashamed of her; there were no roads in Ukraine. And that’s why we need to build infrastructure—it’s a showcase of the country,” the president said.

According to Zelensky, he knows that there are “many accusations against me, they say, during the pandemic, I devoted a lot of time to infrastructure,” but the results are worth it: “Now people saw that our ambulances began to reach patients quickly. Our Ministry of Emergency Situations (fire trucks) began to reach the place of call faster. "

"The medical system in Ukraine was collapsed"

Another industry that "was ruined" before his presidency, according to Vladimir Zelensky, is medicine.

And through the coronavirus, you have to spend more on it, in particular, diverting money from infrastructure development.

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“Due to the pandemic, we redirected a lot of money that went to infrastructure to medicine and increased doctors’ salaries. All doctors who are fighting COVID-19 today receive 300% of their wages,” says Zelensky.

To get a vaccine, you have to be "acrobats"

The fact that Ukraine does not yet have access to a sufficient amount of vaccines against COVID-19, the president blames the general position of Ukraine in the world.

“I was faced with the fact that Ukraine’s position in the world and Europe in terms of the priority of countries has been lost. We are not on the list of countries that are the first to receive the vaccine,” the Ukrainian president explained.

And therefore, according to him, Kiev has to "be, let's say, acrobats in politics, in order to somehow get into the priority of countries, must be very flexible, diplomatic."

Zelensky also believes that the United States and Great Britain should help Ukraine in obtaining a vaccine, and again puts the vaccine issue in a geopolitical context: on the other hand, Ukraine is facing an information attack from Russia, which is promoting its vaccine, Sputnik V.

“Of course, it is impossible to explain to the Ukrainian society why if the United States and Europe do not give you the vaccine, you should not take it in Russia - to any person who dies,” said President Zelensky, and noted: “We must not allow so that Ukraine accepts the Russian vaccine, which has not passed all tests.”

And to the clarifying question whether Ukraine will buy the Russian vaccine if its safety is proven, Mr. Zelensky replied: “It’s very simple. Ukraine will save its people, Ukraine will fight for our partners to give us a vaccine whose effectiveness has been confirmed - Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca.”

"We behaved with dignity"

Volodymyr Zelenskiy says he would like to leave behind the time when Ukraine got into a domestic political dispute in the United States between the two candidates during the last presidential campaign.

“I don’t think we were in this conflict. Okay, we were delayed. But I believe that we behaved with dignity, as befits an independent country, even though it is territorially and numerically smaller than the United States,” Zelensky said.

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He argues that US President Donald Trump should be thanked for his persistence in the situation around Nord Stream, a gas pipeline running from Russia to Europe, which could leave the Ukrainian gas transportation system out of work.

“If we talk about Nord Stream, the United States definitely played the main role here,” says Vladimir Zelensky.

At the same time, according to him, in Kyiv they expect the next US president to have a better knowledge of Ukrainian realities and the situation around Ukraine: “The new President Joe Biden, it seems to me, knows Ukraine better than his predecessor, because even before his presidency he, so to speak, had deep relations with Ukraine and understands Russians well, understands well the difference between Ukraine and Russia and, it seems to me, understands well the mentality of Ukrainians,” Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian president also hopes that with the change of the US president, the economic direction of cooperation with Ukraine will be strengthened, and American companies will increase their investments in Ukraine. In particular, in show business: “I would like Disneyland to appear in Ukraine. I would very much like to. I really believe that our children deserve it, but not everyone can afford to fly to the United States of America or Paris. "

"It is impossible to come to an agreement without us"

President Zelensky also connects a significant part of the possible progress in resolving the conflict in Donbass with the United States. He wants the new American president to step up the negotiation process:

“I believe that President Biden could strengthen our negotiations in the Normandy format, again because he understands the issue of Ukraine and Russia well,” Zelensky said.

He also added that "it is not enough to simply talk about the end of the war."

“What to do then? We need the reintegration of Donbass. And to reintegrate Donbass, we need strong companies, strong technologies, security and money. And here, I believe, we cannot cope on our own,” explained Vladimir Zelensky, repeating the thesis about the need to create a free economic zone in Donbass.

An additional element of US assistance, according to President Zelensky, could be the restoration of the post of special envoy for Ukraine, such as Kurt Volcker.

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“At some point, we, unfortunately, lost the special representative for Ukraine in the United States, Kurt Volker, he took very important connecting steps and could communicate both with Ukraine and communicated well with the Russian Federation and knew all the information first-hand,” Zelensky explained . “I believe that there should be such a special representative or such a body.”

At the same time, President Zelensky claims that in negotiations with Russia on the Donbass, Kyiv is ready only for those compromises that do not go beyond the framework of the Ukrainian Constitution: “I understand that they want separate powers, the right to choose, so that no one then speculates on issues language, so that the residents of Donbass speak as they want - please, on all these things, I believe that we should be as liberal as possible.”

In addition, Mr. Zelensky stressed that Ukraine should remain at the negotiating table of global players when it comes to it: “I, the President of Ukraine, would not want any global players to agree on peace in Donbas and the conditions of this world. It is important for us to be at this negotiating table, because without us it is impossible to come to an agreement. "

About Poroshenko, Kolomoisky and the oligarchs

During the interview, President Zelensky once again demonstrated antipathy towards his predecessor, Petro Poroshenko, calling the question concerning him “unpleasant.”

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He also named Poroshenko in the list of financial players who put pressure on the team of the current president, and also named his predecessor one of the Ukrainian oligarchs: “All financial groups want to influence, including the financial groups of Medvedchuk and Poroshenko, which are also represented in parliament. Poroshenko is not ready to cooperate with the oligarch. If anyone within the parliamentary corps proposes any good initiatives, then I know that all deputies cooperate with each other. Anything that is for the benefit of Ukraine is okay. “I’m not ready for anything that is connected with some things, with lobbying or risks for Ukraine.”

Answering a question about another oligarch, Igor Kolomoisky and his influence on the current government and statements about possible steps of Ukraine as a state, Zelensky answered: “Igor Kolomoisky is not president. And he cannot speak on behalf of Ukraine, on behalf of the President of Ukraine, on behalf of the Ukrainian government. These are the statements of one of the businessmen, one of the oligarchs. "

As for the oligarchs in general, as President Zelensky says, you can cooperate with them, “if they pay taxes and provide jobs, then the state has excellent working relations with them.”

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