JAKARTA - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted that the war in Iran had diverted attention from Russia's aggression against his country, saying that considering efforts to end the fighting in Ukraine could not continue until the conflict in Iran ended was a "big risk."
Speaking to CNN's Christiane Amanpour from the Presidential Office in Kyiv, President Zelensky said on Wednesday, although technical talks with the United States are still ongoing, he "does not see an opportunity to meet until this Iranian problem, conflict is over," as quoted (23/4).
President Zelensky highlighted that it was a "challenge" because the same US negotiating team - led by US envoy Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner - was leading both talks on the war in Iran and in Ukraine.
He said that although he understood that the US was currently focused on the war against Iran, it was important not to forget Ukraine where the fighting was still ongoing.
The Ukrainian leader said it was impossible to say "we will talk about (Ukraine) later. Ukraine is not 'later'. Ukraine is already in such a big tragedy, we have to find a way to manage this in parallel."
President Zelensky also said that the war had caused a bottleneck in the supply of a number of weapons important to Ukraine - especially anti-ballistic missiles, which he said Ukraine did not get enough of due to limited production capacity in the US.
Speaking to CNN hours after the European Union (EU) finally agreed to a crucial 90 billion euro loan for Ukraine, President Zelensky said securing the funds was a "life and death" issue for his country.
The loan, promised to Kyiv months ago, has been delayed for a long time because the outgoing Hungarian Prime Minister, Victor Orbán, is blocking it, demanding that Ukraine restore the flow of Russian oil to Europe.
Its crushing defeat in last week's Hungarian parliamentary elections removed one of the obstacles, and on Wednesday, oil shipments through the Ukrainian section of the Druzhba pipeline resumed, and the EU Ambassador gave initial approval for the loan.
President Zelensky said that without the funds, Ukraine was having difficulty producing the number of weapons it was actually capable of producing.
He gave the example of a drone interceptor, saying Ukraine currently produces about 1,000 units per day, although it has the capacity to produce 2,000 units per day.
"But we don't have funds. It's really about our lives, about survival, for defense, we really need this money," he said.
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