A frank conversation without diplomacy: what the world media write about Zelenskyy’s interview with Fridman

Last night, the American podcaster Lex Friedman published his three-hour interview with President Zelensky, which caused a wide resonance both in the Ukrainian information space and among the world media. Ukrainians were mostly outraged by the president’s undiplomatic statements and profanity, which he used to characterize the situation in the country and relations with partners. The interview was dissected into quotes and instantly spread across the media and social networks. The European media saw in Zelensky’s answers a powerful belief in Trump, multiplied by Musk. The American mass media read in the remarks of the Ukrainian president anxiety about the withdrawal of the United States from the Alliance. There were also critics of Friedman himself as a failed journalist who does not know how to ask questions. So the three-hour interview got different versions of reading. Elon Musk was the least passionate in the assessments. Read more about this in our article.

“Trump and I are the first, and Europe will catch up”

Leading French international media France24 draws attention to the considerable optimism with which President Volodymyr Zelenskyi assumes that the newly elected US President Donald Trump will be able to force Russia into peace negotiations and put an end to the war in Ukraine. Zelensky is sure that together with Trump, they will agree on strong security guarantees for Ukraine, having secured the support of Europe. Said, “we are with Trump first, and Europe will catch up“. Despite all Trump’s previous jokes about the “merchant” Zelenskyi and his rather restrained criticism of Putin, the Ukrainian president looks with hope at Trump’s opportunities. An additional bonus is the role of Elon Musk, whom Zelenskyi also sees among allies. France24 also draws attention to the fact that Zelensky could not resist from commenting on American politics, noting that Trump defeated Kamala Harris, who was Biden’s vice president, because “he is much strongerAccording to the Ukrainian president, Trump demonstrated strength “intellectually and physically”, stressing that a strong country needs a strong leader.

When asked what Ukraine needs for a ceasefire, Zelenskyy answered: security guarantees, preferably within the framework of NATO. He insisted that the West should, at a minimum, guarantee the security of unoccupied territories, continue arms supplies and maintain sanctions against Russia. “Without security guarantees, Putin will return“, he warned.

Regarding Trump’s doubts about the expediency of the US membership in NATO, Zelensky spoke categorically: the withdrawal of the US from the alliance will be his “death”. According to him, Putin is striving for exactly this — “weak NATO“, a failed Ukraine and the lack of partnership between Zelenskyi and Trump.

When asked if he would attend Trump’s inauguration on January 20, Zelensky answered somewhat undiplomatically: “If Trump invites me personally, I will come“.

Faith in NATO and disappointment with nuclear states

Saudi Arabia’s leading English-language news outlet Arab News believes that Zelenskyi used the three-hour interview to urge NATO to accept Ukraine. In particular, he stated that “Russia will increase escalation in Europe if Washington withdraws from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military alliance”.

U articles “Zelensky: A strong Trump can stop the war in Ukraine”, The Times newspaper reports that the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky is optimistic about the possibility of “strong” Donald Trump to facilitate peace talks between Ukraine and Russia after his return to the White House. In an interview with Lex Friedman, Zelensky urged Trump to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin, predicting that American security guarantees in cooperation with Europe could lead to a successful settlement of the conflict. Despite Trump’s past criticism of aid to Ukraine and his threat to withdraw from NATO if European countries do not increase their defense contributions, Zelensky remains optimistic. He emphasizes Trump’s influence and the trust that Ukrainians place in him. The paper also reported that Trump’s national security adviser, Keith Kellogg, proposed a plan to freeze the front lines and facilitate negotiations, although Putin rejected the proposal.

Quality British edition The Guardian called Friedman’s podcast very candid and pointed out that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi expressed disappointment over Ukraine’s lack of nuclear weapons. He also emphasized that his country relies on promises of security from Western countries. In the interview, he criticized the US, Great Britain and other nuclear powers for failing to protect Ukraine’s territorial integrity, citing the Budapest Memorandum and the historical presence of a nuclear arsenal in Ukraine. Zelensky also emphasized the importance of security guarantees in the current situation with Russia.

The same opinion is held by the American edition of Newsweek: the most important opinion of Zelensky in the interview was precisely the warning regarding the withdrawal of the United States from NATO. In this connection, the publication reminds its readers that during his first presidential term, Trump did indeed express the idea of ​​leaving the Alliance. Instead, already in December of last year, he became somewhat more restrained in his statements regarding NATO. Trump agrees to keep the US in the Alliance if the remaining members behave honestly and skillfully pay their bills. At the same time, Newsweek draws attention to the fact that the newly elected American president speaks favorably of Macron’s initiative to introduce peacekeeping forces into Ukraine.

American online edition Jewish Insider traditionally focuses on topics important to the Jewish community, and in its article about Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s three-hour interview with Lex Friedman, the publication quite expectedly focused on his mentions of Jewish origin. Zelensky shared the story of his grandfather, who survived the Holocaust, serving in the Red Army and fighting against the Nazis. According to the publication, this conversation showed the influence of historical traumas on Ukraine’s modern struggle for freedom.

NATO cannot cover all of Ukraine with a security umbrella

German edition daily news reports that podcaster and computer scientist Friedman is of Ukrainian origin. He grew up in Soviet-era Moscow before his family moved to the US in the 1990s. Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Argentine President Javier Miley were among his guests.

The publication emphasizes that Zelensky in the interview put forward a mental model of a possible end to the war, the key point of which is security guarantees at least for those territories that are under the control of Ukraine.  In the conversation, Friedman raised the issue of the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO without the occupied territories, in particular the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson regions and Crimea. To this, Zelenskyi replied: “From a legal point of view, NATO invites Ukraine. For us, these territories remain Ukrainian. NATO can operate only on the territory under the control of Ukraine“. He expressed confidence that an agreement could be reached with this.

Main for Tagesschau: Zelensky confirmed that for Ukraine all its territories remain unchanged, although NATO could only help in those areas under Kyiv’s control.

German edition Spiegel draws attention to the piety with which Zelensky speaks about Trump, describing his virtues. In particular, he talks about the rating of the newly elected US president in Ukraine, which is the highest in the world. Spiegel also writes about a certain dependence of Europe’s position on the views and moods of the newly elected American president: “All European leaders are waiting for what Trump wants, says Zelensky. Like, after his conversations with Trump, everyone always asked him how it was”.

The German media is unanimous. Monitoring of publications devoted to Zelenskyi’s interview with Friedman pedals one key opinion: the Ukrainian president is convinced that “strong” Trump is capable of ending the war.

Friedman’s questions were naive and annoying

Completely different emphasis – not on Zelenskyi as a respondent, but on Friedman as an interviewer – is found in the podcast Decoding the Gurus, hosted on Reddit by psychologist Matthew Brown and anthropologist Chris Kavanagh. They think that Lex’s questions seemed very shallow and not very deep. Although he claimed to be well-versed in the subject, after the interview I got the impression that he was not. His constant musings about the dream of world leaders sitting down at the negotiating table, as well as questions about what would happen if Ukraine and Russia were in NATO, seemed rather naive and annoying. The authors of the podcast add: the entire interview looked as if Zelensky was talking about the difficulties of negotiating with a leader like Putin, and Lex responded by saying: “Why don’t you just hug and kiss?It really begs the question: If Lex could travel back in time to 1943, would he have offered Stalin and Churchill a cup of tea with Hitler?

Lex Friedman’s interview with Volodymyr Zelensky became an important stage in international discussions, but it caused different reactions. If for some it was a frank look at the situation in Ukraine, for others it was an example of inappropriate questions and superficial journalism.

Elon Musk, whom Zelensky mentioned approvingly in his interview, did not stay away published a link to the podcast on his social network X. There was no text accompaniment. Musk added only a short caption: “Interview with Zelenskyi“. Probably, the American billionaire liked what was said about him.