Vladyslav Greziev warns 'never trust Russians': 'They don't want peace deals, nor the war to end'

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00:00It's Donald Trump's 100th day in office, and Ukraine's economy minister is en route to

00:07Washington. This, as Kiev, is talking up the prospect of a key minerals deal finally being

00:15reached, the minerals deal that soured in that bust-up at the White House between Trump and his

00:21Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump administration, in the last week, has been

00:26threatening to pull the plug on mediation with Moscow, raising fears it would drop military

00:31support for Ukraine. Under terms of the deal, which have not yet been made public, it seems as though

00:39there would be a 50-50 partnership to keep Washington on side. It is truly an equal, solid international

00:52agreement on joint investments in the development and reconstruction of Ukraine between the government

00:57of the United States and the government of Ukraine. The American side can count new military aid to

01:03Ukraine. I repeat, only new aid as a contribution to the fund.

01:09And with us to talk about it, we have a soldier and a recruiter, Vladislav Greziev. Before we talk

01:14about your company, LobbyX, first, your reaction to the economy minister flying to Washington, the

01:20possibility of that minerals deal.

01:24I think United States showed us great support, even before Trump's administration. And we need to

01:32respect all of the efforts from the American people, and we are thankful for them, for their support. So

01:36I'm not the best expert in economics, but I think if our minister comes, it matters. So I wish good luck

01:46for these negotiations. Because when you hear the Secretary of State, or say, repeat on Sunday, that

01:53we're getting tired of this mediation, we might just stop doing it. How do you interpret those words?

02:00Well, I think their previous plans was really to finish the active war very quickly. But maybe if to dive deep

02:11into the details and see who we're dealing with them in Russia, it becomes not so easy. And now, like, this new view

02:21shows them that it should be maybe some much more time for that. That's why we hear these messages. But we are in the

02:30process. Ukraine would not exit this process because we have enemies on our land and on the ground in the

02:37eastern part of Europe. So we feel this like, okay, if you will quit, no problem. We will continue to fight

02:46until we will win, of course.

02:49And the Ukrainians in the last three years have certainly leveled up in a lot of respect. They've shown the

02:57world what a drone war looks like. One of the big problems is you're outnumbered. And that's where your

03:03company, LobbyX, comes in, because it's difficult in Ukraine to replenish the forces that are needed in this

03:12war of attrition. Tell us about LobbyX and what it does.

03:15Actually, we are social entrepreneurship. We, before the full-scale invasion, and now also we help to recruit

03:22people into the state bodies, NGOs, independent media, businesses. But yeah, also joined armed forces on the

03:28second day of full-scale invasion. And so that in armed forces, as everywhere, people are the core component

03:34for success. And previous approach in military, like Soviet legacy, was not aimed to evaluate people's

03:43experience, skills, strengths and weaknesses. And I start to develop a new approach. So this is not

03:49about to fulfill. It's about to make army efficient in recruitment. So now we have...

03:54What does that mean to make the army efficient in recruitment?

03:56For example, we have a website and it's integrated with all of the state applications where you could

04:02find any military unit and any military vacancy in that unit, apply for that, like deciding whether

04:12these requirements, these responsibilities, conditions are okay for you, like evaluating whether

04:17you are ready to be in combat or you want to be in the rear position. And you will be more successful

04:23and more efficient when you be on your place. Before, like Soviet approach was not about it.

04:28It was centralized system when people decided after you, but not you.

04:33A lot of the reporting from the front line three years on is that there are, there's some bitterness

04:38from the soldiers. They feel as though life's continuing in the cafes in Kiev, far from the

04:43front line. That's not true. All of the mood in the army is to fight until we win. Everybody

04:50understand that they fight for these people who stay in rear cities, who works in for economy, who

04:56like have children to go to school and so on. So this is what we fight for actually, to make this

05:04possible, to continue Ukrainian independent state and nation to live in the future. Not such mood in

05:11army at all. What about the conscription age? Because there's the lowering from 27 to 25. If the war

05:17continues, will it have to go even lower? No, it's not the solution. First of all, the group of people

05:23from the age of 18 to 25, it's much more less in general population. It will not be the solution

05:32to fulfill army. And of course, somebody should to live in the future to restore the nation, the

05:38population, to build new institutions and rebuild Ukraine after the victory. This is not smart to like

05:44the subscription made, like, like emergent for these people. Still, they can't, they can't join

05:53army voluntarily. And I think it's not such a crisis. It's not a big deal to like make these steps

06:01because each month we have enough new recruits into the army. You have enough recruits? It's, it could be,

06:08it's much more we need, of course, but it's still big numbers and we are growing in different,

06:14different military units are like becoming bigger scaling, the most successful ones, of course. So,

06:21this is not the critical situation about it at all. When it was like previous administration and

06:27especially being concerned about these ideas, I was one of those. And a lot of people who work in

06:33field of human capital policies and armed forces, like we said, this is not about it. We are not in

06:39that situation.

06:40Vladisav Gerzev, at one point, the guns will go silent. One of the questions, and I know this is

06:46something you've worked on personally, is what about those who come back from the front and those who

06:53suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, for instance, how will you help those along? Because

06:57that's going to take years. Yeah. We launched a new department in our company in September

07:04previous year. We provide veterans consultants for employment, because the work, the job would be like

07:12a new sense for living, for continuing to live, and you, like, think that you will continue to work for

07:20victory, but being a civilian. For example, it's a lot of defense tech companies appeared in Ukraine,

07:28new ones, like hundreds of, for drones production, for example. And military experience and, for example,

07:35testing these products is very important. And a lot of veterans goes for that, to continue their impact

07:42into the weaponry, especially, and into the victory as well.

07:46Well, the Ukraine has shown the world how it can be done with drones and how sometimes even sitting

07:52at a kitchen table, you can help the war effort. There is one area where you need the United States,

07:58and that is air defenses. So that's true. If the United States tomorrow pulls the plug, what then?

08:04What then? Actually, as I know, already all of this provision for Patriot missiles is on PAUSE.

08:14And yeah, of course, it's very sadly, because our huge ally now are coming back to us, like,

08:22not helping us in this field. We could not have our own alternatives for that. And our, like, peaceful

08:30citizens in real cities, like, damaged by ballistic missiles every day, like, almost every day.

08:36This is really a nightmare. Yeah, we would be sad. We would be discouraged for a while,

08:43but we will continue to fight. We will, like, search for new solutions. I hope that our other allies

08:51from Europe help us with other systems. And especially want to thank French people and French government

08:57for support. We really feel this. It's very important for us, and it encourages us to defend ourselves

09:03and Europe at all. One final question. Your reaction to Vladimir Putin's announcement of a

09:08Victory Day 72-hour truce for around the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II?

09:15Never trust Russians. We know this the most in this planet, because we face the genocidal war,

09:24and when you face this, you explore and learn your enemy as much as possible. This is, like, not truth.

09:31They don't want to have peace deals. They don't want to have finished this war, because if they would,

09:36they, like, did not strike ballistic missiles on our cities each night and Iranian drones. This is not truth.

09:43Vladislav Gretzyev, many thanks for stopping in and seeing us here at France 24.

09:48Thank you, too. Thank you for reminding me.

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