Russia has penetrated politics in Britain and the US, Zelensky says - as he warns Putin would demolish cities and slaughter hundreds of thousands if his armies are allowed to prevail

Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Russia has penetrated western politics and rejected the idea that Vladimir Putin's invasion of his Ukraine could be ended quickly with territorial concessions by his country.

The Ukrainian president also predicted that Putin would demolish cities and slaughter hundreds of thousands of people if Moscow's armies were to prevail in their ongoing war, launched by Putin in February 2022.

His comments come as a vital $60 billion aid package continues to be held up in the United States Congress, and as Russian forces - with greater manpower and firepower than Ukraine - continue to make advancements in the east of the country.

In recent weeks, Republican lawmakers who support the aid package for Ukraine have sounded the alarm over pro-Russian propaganda, saying it has filtered through to other members of Congress who are blocking the package.

Asked about the claim on Tuesday, Zelensky said Russia's influence over western democracies - including Britain and the United States - was being understated.

Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky (pictured Tuesday) has warned that Russia has penetrated western politics and rejected the idea that Vladimir Putin 's invasion of his Ukraine could be ended quickly with territorial concessions by his country

'[Russia has] lobbies everywhere: in the United States, in the EU countries, in Britain, in Latin America, in Africa,' Zelensky told Axel Springer media outlets - which owns publications including Politico, Business Insider and Germany's BILD.

He said that Russia had warped 'the information field of the world' by pumping 'their narratives through the media'.

'These are not Russian citizens or natives of Russia, no. They are representatives of certain media groups, citizens of the United States. They are the ones in the media with the appropriate messages, sometimes very pro-Russian.'

Despite the opposition to the aid package, Zelensky said he still believed it would pass through Congress in what would be a vital step towards getting the ammunition it needs to hold back the Russian advance.

In the wide-ranging interview, Zelensky also took aim at former US president Donald Trump and likely Republican candidate for this year's US presidential election.

Trump has said he would end the war in Ukraine were he to be reelected in 2024.

The Ukrainian leader said he had privately urged Trump through back channels to travel to his country, and that the controversial business mogul had expressed an interest in taking him up on the offer - but had not yet committed.

'We conveyed the messages and the context through the appropriate people,' he said. 'We said that we would like Donald Trump to come to Ukraine, see everything with his own eyes and draw his own conclusions. 

'In any case, I am ready to meet him and discuss the issue.'

Zelensky said that while he is open to hearing Trump's proposals for the war, he said he was highly skeptical about the plan. 

The Ukrainian leader said he had privately urged Donald Trump (pictured) through back-channels to travel to his country, and that the controversial business mogul had expressed an interest in taking him up on the offer - but had not yet committed

Zelensky explicitly faulted Germany - taking aim at politicians, including figures within Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic Party. Pictured: Scholz is seen on March 21

'If the deal is that we just give up our territories, and that's the idea behind it, then it's a very primitive idea,' he told the interviewer. 'I need very strong arguments. I don't need a fantastic idea, I need a real idea, because people's lives are at stake.'

A deal that gave up land to Putin's advancing forces, he said, would just open the door to more Russian conquests in the future.

Any negotiated peace must leave the Russian leader 'no room to carry out his plans' which, Zelensky said, which would see Ukrainian cities demolished and Russian forces slaughter hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Many western officials also fear Russia could launch further invasions into Europe - possibly even against NATO members.

Trump has often expressed his own scepticism over Ukraine's war effort, the sending of aid, and NATO - and has also been a long-term critic of Zelensky.

He has also boasted that he could quickly broker an end to the war in Ukraine as president and recently suggested he would encourage Russian aggression against NATO members who do not meet the alliance's military spending expectations.

This has been a sharp contrast to President Joe Biden's vow to support Kyiv for as long as it takes to defeat Russia.

Zelensky has repeatedly rejected calls to surrender territory to Russia as part of any peace deal, including Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014.

However, Ukraine has warned in recent months that it risks losing ground and is rationing ammunition as Russia, sensing an advantage more than two years into its invasion, ramps up attacks.

Biden has attacked Trump and those who are holding up aid to Ukraine as being useful stooges for Putin, and as a threat to global stability and democracies.

Many fear that the fate of Ukraine hangs in the balance of America's 2024 election, as well as European election in the summer.

Zelensky's interview came after British foreign secretary David Cameron met with Trump in Florida in a bit to persuade him to support Ukraine. 

'I come here with no intention to lecture anybody, or tell anybody what to do or get in the way of the process of politics,' Cameron said during his US visit.

'I just come here as a great friend and believer in this country, and a believer that it's profoundly in your interest,' he said, 'to release this money.'

'There will be people in Tehran, in Pyongyang, in Beijing, looking at how we stand by our allies, how we help them, how we stop this illegal and unprovoked aggression, and working out whether we are committed,' he said.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (second left) visits the construction site of a defence line in Kharkiv region

Zelensky said in an interview on Tuesday that Russia's had infiltrated western democracies - including Britain and the United States

Zelensky mostly withheld his impatience with Ukraine's western allies over delayed military aid, but admitted Kyiv was under pressure to show progress in the war.

Politico reported that Zelensky said he was concerned that thoughts about peacemaking might lead other allies in the West to make damaging political and diplomatic mistakes, without naming names.

He did, however, explicitly fault Germany - taking aim at politicians, including figures within Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic Party.

Zelensky specifically called out Germany for withholding TAURUS missiles, and for fantasising of a 'frozen' war that would bring an end to Russia's invasion without denting Moscow's capacity for war in the future.

'A frozen conflict is like a pause, like in a film,' he told the publications. 'Only it's not a film, it's reality. It's just a pause, but it's a pause for Putin.'

He said Scholz was withholding the TAURUS missiles from Ukraine for reasons that made no strategic sense, saying the German Chancellor had told him he didn't want to leave his country without the powerful weapon in its arsenal.

Zelensky said this way of thinking appeared to come from a fear over Russia's nuclear capabilities, and that Germany having such a missile would would help in the event of a full-scale war with Russia.

'But I don't think it will save the world from the nuclear threat from Russia either,' Zelensky said. 'Any missiles, TAURUS, ATACMS, F-16s will not protect a single person from nuclear strikes, if a nuclear war breaks out, God forbid. It won't.'

He also acknowledged Ukraine's attempted 2023 counteroffensive was 'not so successful' and vowed that his military's next strike would be more effective.

Without going into further detail, he claimed Ukraine's last attempt was sabotaged from within its own ranks, saying Russian 'knew where we were going to attack' adding that 'history will tell' how this was the case.

Ukrainian soldiers attend military training as the Russia-Ukraine war continues, in the regions close to the front line in the Donetsk region, Ukraine on March 15, 2024

Zelensky's comments came as the United States agreed to sell $138 million worth of urgently needed military equipment to Ukraine to repair and upgrade its HAWK missile systems. The $60 billion package remains stalled.

Ukraine's air defenses, which largely consisted of Soviet-era planes and missile systems when Russia invaded in February 2022, have been vastly improved with US equipment and aid since the start of the war.

Washington has provided Ukraine with several advanced air defense systems to help counter Russian aerial attacks, including US-made Patriot missiles and older equipment such as the HAWK.

Ukraine has made increasingly urgent calls for the United States to start sending the  proposed $60 billion package that has been blocked for months.

The support package would allow the delivery of crucial weapons and ammunition to Ukrainian troops on the front lines.

With Russian forces ramping up attacks of late, Zelensky said last Sunday that his country would lose the war if the US Congress did not approve the package.

Moscow launched in late March its largest aerial attack on Ukraine's energy infrastructure since the war began two years ago.

A man carries bottled water and looks at a residential building damaged by Russian shelling on April 9, 2024 in Selydove, Donetsk Oblast

The attacks saw power cut to more than a million homes and took the country's largest hydroelectric plant offline.

Moscow has also stepped up attacks on Chasiv Yar as it seeks to build on territorial gains in recent months.  Chasiv Yar is less than 18 miles from Kramatorsk, an important rail and logistics hub for the Ukrainian army.

Washington has been Kyiv's key military backer since Russia invaded.

But with the new aid package held up by wrangling inside the Republican party over President Joe Biden's immigration policies, Ukrainian soldiers have been forced to ration ammunition amid uncertainty over when the next delivery might arrive.