Zelensky hopes U.S. assistance continues

MOSCOW. Feb 19 (Interfax) - Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky hopes that the security agreements with the United Kingdom, Germany and France will boost the unblocking of U.S. assistance to Ukraine, Ukrainian media said, citing Zelensky as telling a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Friday.

The agreements are not an alternative to U.S. assistance, Zelensky said. "We are all in this together, and we need this union, the union of the U.S., Europe, France, Germany and the UK, very much. I believe that these agreements will give a boost, so that the United States makes assistance to Ukraine a higher priority than the [U.S.] electoral process at some point," he said.

"I have no doubt that the [U.S.] president is on our side. The White House and the bipartisan support we continue to enjoy despite domestic issues are also on our side. I very much want them to resolve these issues," Zelensky said.

Zelensky went to Berlin before visiting Paris, and commented on U.S. assistance to Kiev there as well.

"I hope the U.S. will not step aside," Zelensky said at a press conference with German Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

He added that most U.S. citizens support Ukraine.

"In particular, I have been regularly receiving such messages from the [U.S.] president, his administration and representatives of both parties in Congress. There are different voices, some of them radical, and there are some serious hotheads involved in the political process in the U.S. But I still hope that, despite any current problems in Congress and generally in U.S. policy because of the election, a pragmatic U.S. approach will develop," Zelensky said.

As to whether Germany and the European Union can fill the financial and defense "gap" in the absence of U.S. assistance, Zelensky said, "There are always risks."

"We are counting on the union of European countries as a whole, and on their union with the United States," he said.