Zelenskyy: Trump has enough power to make Putin fear him

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that new US sanctions were needed and emphasized that his American counterpart Donald Trump has enough power to make the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to be afraid of him. The head of state said this in an interview with British TV channel Sky News.

Zelenskiy appealed to the US President to take "strong personal steps" to stop Putin after the US president called on NATO allies to stop buying Russian oil and impose tariffs on China to put pressure on Moscow.

"I believe that the US is strong enough to take decisions of their own," he said. "I believe Donald Trump can give us air defence systems in quantity and US has enough. I'm sure the US can apply enough sanctions in order to hurt the Russian economy, plus Donald Trump has enough force to make Putin afraid of him," the Ukrainian leader said.

He reminded that the European Union has already imposed 18 sanctions packages against Russia: "And all that's lacking now is a strong sanctions package from the US."

• The day before, on September 15, secretary of State Rubio said that Trump wants European countries to impose such sanctions on Russia, what they expect from the US itself.
• US Treasury secretary Bessent said that the US administration will not impose additional duties on Chinese goods to stop Beijing's purchases of Russian oil unless European countries establish own high tariffs on products of the country.