Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says US President-elect Donald Trump could be decisive in the outcome of the 34-month-old war with Russia and help stop Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.
Zelenskiy, facing advances by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, said in an interview with Ukrainian television that Trump had told him he would be one of the first to visit Washington after the presidential inauguration this month.
Zelenskiy also said a priority was to stabilise the front line early in the new year.
Putin, he said, feared negotiations as they would be tantamount to a defeat for Russia.
"Trump can be decisive. For us, this is the most important thing," Zelenskiy said in a televised interview.
"His qualities are indeed there," Zelenskiy said of Trump. "He can be decisive in this war. He is capable of stopping Putin or, to put it more fairly, help us stop Putin. He is able to do this."
Zelenskiy has said that achieving a just peace for Ukraine meant receiving solid security guarantees from its allies, joining the European Union and receiving an invitation to join the NATO alliance, a notion rejected by Moscow.
"Naturally, any security guarantees without the United States are weak security guarantees for Ukraine," he said.
Zelenskiy said he wanted to ensure that any US plan on a settlement took account of Ukraine's views.
"It cannot be otherwise. We are Ukraine and it's our independence, our land and our future."
He also hoped that Trump's administration could establish quick contact with Russia. Putin has said Moscow is open to talks but they must take account of Russia's gains in the war and its annexation of four Ukrainian regions.
With Russian forces capturing village after village on the eastern front in their fastest advance since the February 2022 invasion, Zelenskiy said stabilising the front was critical.
"They are putting pressure on our boys, who are exhausted and that is a fact. We will do everything to at least stabilise the front in January," he said.
Zelenskiy, elected in 2019, repeated that new elections could not be held as long as a wartime state of emergency remained in place, but said he would consider running again once conditions permitted.
"I don't know how this war will end," he said. "If I can do more than I am able, then I will probably view such a decision (seeking a new term) more positively. For now this is not an objective for me."
On the battlefront, the Ukrainian military reported it carried out a strike on a Russian command post in Maryino, in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces hold chunks of territory after a major incursion.
The Russian military said air defence units had downed four Ukrainian missiles in the region and the regional governor said the strikes had damaged a high-rise apartment building and other buildings in an adjacent village.
Ukrainian forces remain in Russia's Kursk region five months after sending troops across the border although the Russian military says much of the territory lost in the invasion has been recaptured.
"These strikes disrupt the ability of the Russian Federation to conduct terrorism against innocent Ukrainian civilians," the Ukrainian military said in a statement via the Telegram messaging app.
Another post showed a video of what the military said was damage to a Russian base in Ivanivskoye, next to Maryino.
Reuters could not independently verify battlefield accounts from either side.
Kursk regional governor Alexander Khinshtein said the strike on Ivanovskoye had shattered windows in a multi-storey apartment building and in private homes.
Also damaged were a school, a pharmacy and a shop.
A video showed work under way to repair damage to a facade.
In an effort to stop the Russian counter offensive, several small towns that serve as bases for the troops advancing from the Kremlin have been shelled in recent weeks.
The Ukrainian forces often used HIMARS rocket artillery from the United States.
Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian attack for almost three years.
with DPA
