Image: from Euromaidan Press X @EuromaidanPress
By Open Chronicle Staff with Agencies
Monday, February 23, 2026
KYIV – In a sobering assessment of the global security landscape, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has declared that Russian President Vladimir Putin has already initiated a third world war.
Speaking to the BBC in Kyiv as the conflict enters its fifth year, Zelenskyy warned that the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022, was merely the opening chapter of a broader Russian campaign to dismantle the international order and impose an authoritarian way of life on the free world.
“I believe that Putin has already started it,” Zelenskyy said during the interview published late Sunday. “The question is how much territory he will be able to seize and how to stop him.”
There are different views on World War III. I believe Putin has already started it. The question is: how much territory can he seize, and how to stop him? Not to prevent Russia from winning, but because Russia wants to impose its own world and change people’s lives, which they…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 23, 2026
A Bulwark for the West
The Ukrainian leader framed his nation’s resistance not just as a struggle for sovereignty, but as a critical defense line for Western democracy. He argued that the current fighting in eastern and southern Ukraine is preventing the conflict from escalating into a “broad full-scale third world war” that would directly involve more nations.
“Stopping Putin today and preventing him from occupying Ukraine is a victory for the whole world,” he added. “Because Putin will not stop at Ukraine.”
Zelenskyy’s remarks come at a time of heightened tension, as the war reaches the four-year mark on Tuesday. Despite recent talk of peace negotiations in Geneva and Abu Dhabi, the Ukrainian president remains firm on the issue of territorial integrity.
Rejecting “Abandonment”
Addressing suggestions that Ukraine might cede territory—specifically parts of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions—in exchange for a ceasefire, Zelenskyy was categorical in his rejection. He described the prospect of giving up land not as a strategic maneuver, but as a betrayal of the people living under occupation.
“I don’t look at it simply as land. I see it as abandonment, weakening our positions, abandoning hundreds of thousands of our people who live there,” he said. He further warned that such a withdrawal would deeply “divide our society.”
While reaffirming the ultimate goal of restoring Ukraine’s 1991 borders, Zelenskyy acknowledged the immense human cost of an immediate counter-offensive to retake all occupied lands. “To do it today would mean losing a huge number of people, millions of people. And what is land without people? Honestly, nothing.”
Plea for Advanced Weaponry
The president also highlighted a persistent bottleneck in Ukraine’s defense: the lack of advanced weaponry and production licenses. He noted that while Western partners have provided significant aid, they have yet to grant licenses for Ukraine to produce its own Patriot missile systems or the necessary munitions.
“Today the issue is air defense, which is the most difficult problem,” he said, urging international partners to move beyond financial aid toward industrial collaboration.
As the world watches the shifting frontlines and the diplomatic maneuvering in Geneva, Zelenskyy’s message remains clear: the global conflict is already underway, and the cost of failure in Ukraine would be a world reshaped in Vladimir Putin’s image.