Zelenskyy says he told Trump Putin was 'playing games' with Washington

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he told Donald Trump that Vladimir Putin is lying and "playing games" with Washington, sharpening his public argument that Moscow is trying to run out the clock while the war continues.

In a June 9 interview reported by The Guardian, the Ukrainian president said Russia is losing the initiative day by day, though he stopped short of saying it is losing the war. The comments come as Kyiv tries to keep diplomatic pressure on Moscow and maintain Western support.

Zelenskyy’s remarks follow an open letter he published on June 4 calling for direct talks with Putin on neutral ground. Putin rejected that proposal later that week at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, saying there was no point in meeting the Ukrainian leader.

The new interview keeps the focus on Zelenskyy’s effort to frame Russia as stalling negotiations while Ukraine seeks to show it still has leverage on the battlefield. It also places Trump back into the discussion, with Zelenskyy saying he warned the former U.S. president not to trust Putin’s approach.

The exchange adds to a fast-moving diplomatic backdrop, but the immediate development remains narrow: Zelenskyy is publicly accusing Putin of stringing Washington along, and doing so while pointing to what he says is improving battlefield momentum for Ukraine.