11 Feb 2020 16:17

Zelensky admits existence of conflicts in his team

KYIV. Feb 11 (Interfax) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has acknowledged that there are conflicts within his team, which obstruct the working process.

"There are conflicts. They obstruct the working process. I have always been against such conflicts, as there are no winners and no draws in them. Unfortunately. Because we either lose time or we lose people. And all those working in the [presidential] office are professional people. That is, we will definitely lose someone. Because you can't live amid a permanent conflict. That's it," Zelensky said in an interview with Interfax.

Zelensky said he has to work not only with people whom he trusts.

"There is a difference between who I work with and who I trust. If we talk about someone I work together with, there are two or three people at the presidential office who I've known for a long time. As for others, we either started working together during the election campaign, or we got to know each other after we won, or these people were working at the presidential office before we got there," he said.

Zelensky said the current government used to include the only minister who he knew from university, i.e., former Minister for the Development of Communities and Territories Olena Babak, but even she could hardly be described as "his person."

"I hadn't seen her after university. That is, this is not my person. We simply studied at the same college and that's why we knew each other," he said.

Speaking about confidence in people, Zelensky said that it takes him a long time to start trusting people, but once he starts trusting someone, nobody can persuade him that this is a person who is up to "something bad and dishonest."

"It's very hard for me to part with people, very hard," he said.