Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky warns Russian officials over ending war

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ominously warned Russian officials to find the nearest bomb shelter if they continue to refuse to end the war.

“They have to know where the bomb shelters are,” Zelensky told Axios Wednesday. “They need it. If they will not stop the war, they will need it in any case.”

Zelensky went on to insist Ukraine would only target Kremlin officials and not Russian civilians because “we are not terrorists.”

“They have to know that we in Ukraine, each day, we will answer. If they attack us, we will answer them,” he said.

The threat came soon after President Trump made a surprise pivot by saying for the first time that he believes Ukraine could win the three-year war and retake land captured by Moscow.

Zelensky, who met with Trump this week while he was in New York for the UN General Assembly, said the president had suggested to him that Ukraine should repeatedly strike back against Russia.

“If they attack our energy, President Trump supports that we can answer on energy,” Zelensky said.

He added, too, that Kyiv was seeking new long-range weapons from the United States.

“We need it, but it doesn’t mean that we will use it,” he said. “Because if we’ll have it, I think it’s additional pressure on Putin to sit and speak.”

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, was quick to respond to Zelensky’s taunts.

“Russia could use weapons that a bomb shelter wouldn’t protect against. And the Americans should remember this,” he wrote on X.