The Ukrainian leader faced a backlash from President Donald Trump after challenging his foreign policy during a White House visit
The US decision to temporarily suspend intelligence sharing with Kiev did not doom Ukraine’s hold on part of Russia’s Kursk Region, Vladimir Zelensky has claimed.
President Donald Trump halted intelligence support following Zelensky’s challenge to his diplomatic stance toward Russia during a late February visit to the White House. This month, Ukrainian forces in Kursk Region have suffered major setbacks, including the liberation of the town of Sudzha by Russian troops, the largest community to have been occupied since last August’s incursion.
”Any suspension or pause in support certainly does not do anything good for us on the battlefield, and for our defense,” Zelensky stated in an interview with TIME magazine last Friday. “Don’t get me wrong. The state of morale always depends on whether your partners are standing beside you. But I wouldn’t say that the freeze influenced the operation in Kursk.”
Previously, Western news outlets, including TIME, reported that Trump’s power move had seriously weakened Ukraine’s position in Kursk Region, affecting the morale and capabilities of Kiev’s forces. During a heated exchange in the Oval Office, Trump chastised Zelensky for failing to express gratitude for US assistance and told him he had “no cards” to play without Washington’s support.
Ukraine launched the incursion last August, arguing that capturing Russian territory would give it leverage in future peace negotiations with Moscow. As Ukrainian troops faced a pushback, Kiev shifted its narrative, claiming that its military objectives had been met by diverting Russian units from other parts of the front.
According to estimates provided by the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukrainian forces have incurred nearly 70,000 casualties in the Kursk operation and have lost hundreds of valuable pieces of heavy weaponry, including those supplied by Western donors.
In the interview, Zelensky urged the US and its fellow NATO members to continue funding the Ukrainian military in the foreseeable future, asserting that the Russian economy would collapse by 2026 or 2027 under sustained Western sanctions.
