'For Ukrainians, time is life'

The big story In an exclusive interview, Volodymyr Zelenskiy tells of balancing urgency with democracy in securing western aid and how he faces the challenge of leading Ukraine in the war against Russia

- Katharine Viner, Nick Hopkins, Luke Harding and Shaun Walker KYIV

After three military checkpoints, several security screenings, and a walk along long, carpeted corridors past windows blocked with sandbags, the instantly recognisable figure of Ukraine’s president materialised, looking particularly slight alongside his bulky security detail. Dressed in green military trousers and a black T-shirt, Volodymyr Zelenskiy strode across the parquet floor of the grand, ceremonial room inside Kyiv’s presidential compound, and sat down to speak for nearly an hour with a Guardian team, including the editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner.

The interview came at perhaps the toughest moment for Ukraine since the early days of the war. Zelenskiy insisted, however, that it was too early to write offthe country, and that he remained positive despite all his frustrations. "I'm not in despair at all... I don't feel like we are on a sinking ship which is going to the bottom. We are not shouting 'save us'."

The president is, however, shouting for more urgency. Russia is on the offensive in the Kharkiv region, an advance that came after months of delay in the US Congress over the passing of a major support package, limiting Ukraine's battlefield capacities. Then there was the ban on using western weapons to hit Russian military targets across the border, limiting its ability to defend itself.

In the hours after the interview, the US administration finally shifted on that issue, allowing Ukraine to use certain US weapons on targets in the Russian border areas around Kharkiv. It is a permission that may have been more useful three weeks ago, when Ukrainian intelligence could first see Russian troops gathering across the border in preparation for the assault.

This sense of decisions being taken long after Ukraine needed them has been a recurring motif of western policymaking over the past two years, and one that has caused much frustration.