Quotes from Volodymyr Zelensky

In my previous profession, when I was a producer, scriptwriter and actor, I wanted to get an Oscar, I wanted to be popular in the U.S.A.

If there is no Ukrainian strong army, there will be no Ukraine, and that will be the case when everyone will understand... it's not the war in Ukraine, it's the war in Europe. We are defending our country, our land. We are not attacking anyone, because that is immoral.

It's a victory when the weapons fall silent and people speak up.

Faith is something we never discuss at the dinner table in my family, but I do believe in God.

All the money I have, I made with my talent.

The president can't change the country on his own. But what can he do? He can give an example.

There was no pressure or blackmail from the U.S. I had no idea the military aid was held up.

Let's build a country of opportunities, where everybody is equal before the law and where the rules of the game are honest and transparent, and the same for everyone.

We must become Icelanders in soccer, Israelis in defending our land, Japanese in technology.

I am not a politician. I am just a simple person who has come to break down this system.

Let's find those people whose names do not cause controversy in our present and in our future. Let's name the monuments and streets for those people whose names do not provoke conflict.

Why is Poroshenko going for a second term? So that he doesn't get a first.

Politics is not an exact science. That's why in school I loved mathematics. Everything in mathematics was clear to me.

Honestly, Russia should want it, to give our territory, our land back to us.

I will not agree to go to war in the Donbass. I know there are a lot of hotheads, especially those who hold rallies and say, 'Let's go fight and win it all back!' But at what price? What is the cost? It's another story of lives and land. And I won't do it.

People don't really believe in words. Or rather, people believe in words only for a stretch of time. Then they start to look for action.

I am a person who works to deadlines.

The Ukrainian nation, as no other nation, understands and is fully aware of the tragedy and its scale of all the lost lives of the Ukrainian Jews during the Second World War.

Ukraine and Israel have long-standing historical ties. Our nations have together experienced all the tragedies in recent history - the Holodomor and the Holocaust, the Second World War, and the totalitarian Soviet regime.

If I meet Putin, I'll say to him: 'So you've finally given us back our territory, how much more are you ready to give as compensation money for taking away our land and helping those who took part in the escalation in Crimea and Donbass?'

I would never want Ukraine to be a piece on the map, on the chessboard of big global players, so that someone could toss us around, use us as cover, as part of some bargain.

We should show Chernobyl to the world: scientists, environmental specialists, historians and tourists.

I don't want to interfere in U.S. elections.

My election only proves that the citizens are tired of the experienced politicians who over the past 28 years created a country of opportunities - opportunities to steal, bribe and loot.