--- title: "\"You don't want to, but you have to\": Zelensky admits in WSJ interview that he made many mistakes during the war" description: "In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Volodymyr Zelensky admitted that he had made many mistakes over the years of the war and spoke about the constant stress that, in his words, he does not always manage to cope with." date: 2026-09-24T02:20:00.000Z lang: en url: https://xab.info/en/posts/zelensky-admits-mistakes-stress-wsj tags: [zelensky, ukraine-war, wsj-interview, stress, russia-ukraine] publisher: "XAB.info" --- # "You don't want to, but you have to": Zelensky admits in WSJ interview that he made many mistakes during the war ![Volodymyr Zelenskyy reviewing documents at his desk ahead of WSJ interview on wartime mistakes](https://xab.info/media/2026/09/24/zelensky-priznal-oshibki-stress-wsj/zelensky-priznal-oshibki-stress-wsj-1.webp) ## 🎯 Key Points - In a WSJ interview, Zelensky admitted that he had made many mistakes over the years of the war due to the need to make hundreds of decisions every day. - The president stated that he is not sure whether he is coping with the stress, and that he wants to be able to walk the streets of his country in peace after the war. - Some outlets interpret his words as a statement about deteriorating health, although no such phrasing appears in the verbatim quote. - On the same day, Zelensky stated that Putin wants to seize Odesa, Kharkiv and Dnipro, and linked the disruption of the world order to the occupation of Crimea in 2014. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke openly with the publication's editor-in-chief Emma Tucker, acknowledging that he had made numerous mistakes over the years of the full-scale war. In his own words, the reason lies in the enormous flow of complex decisions and agreements that he has to make almost every day. "Of course, I make mistakes. In wartime you make a lot of mistakes. Why? Because you have to... How does President Trump put it? Make a deal? You have to conclude hundreds of agreements every day," RBC-Ukraine quotes him as saying. ### Admitting mistakes: hundreds of decisions a day Zelensky emphasized that such decisions are often complex and highly sensitive, and sometimes — contrary to his own convictions. "Sometimes you know you don't even want to do it, but you have to," the president added. At the same time, he did not specify which exact decisions he considers mistaken, limiting himself to a general description of the managerial burden during combat operations. At the end of the conversation he stated that, in the end, everything comes down to one's attitude toward one's own work, country, and people: "It all revolves around people. People give you the energy to live. And there are people you hate — and they take away all your energy." ### Stress and the question of surviving in office In response to Tucker's question about how he is currently coping with the stress after years of war, Zelensky answered bluntly: "I don't know. I'm not sure I'm really coping with it." He also noted that he tries to do his job in such a way that after the war and his presidency end, he will be able to remain in his country and walk its streets in peace. This phrasing became one of the most quoted fragments of the conversation and was picked up by Ukrainian and foreign media. ### Contradictory data There is a noticeable discrepancy in how different outlets present the material. The primary verbatim quote, relayed by RBC-Ukraine citing WSJ, records only the admission of mistakes and doubt about the ability to cope with stress — there is no direct phrasing about "deteriorating health" in it. At the same time, a number of other outlets (Life, Rambler, Osnmedia) interpret these same words as a statement about the president's worsening well-being and health, allegedly due to constant stress. Thus, the "just stress and mistakes" version and the "deteriorating health" version coexist in the news field: the first relies on the verbatim quote, the second on the editorial interpretation of that same quote. Readers should bear in mind that the medical phrasing is not confirmed by Zelensky's direct words in the available quotes. ### Context of the statements: Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipro On the same day, Zelensky made a number of statements about Russia's military objectives. According to him, Vladimir Putin intends to seize Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipro and other Ukrainian cities, and it is precisely from the Russian leader, in the Ukrainian president's assessment, that war and instability spread across the world. These statements came against the backdrop of ongoing combat and became part of the broader rhetoric on the scale of Russian aggression. ### Crimea and the international order Earlier, Zelensky had also emphasized that without the return of annexed Crimea under Ukrainian control, it is impossible to restore normal life and the principles of international law. In his words, it was the occupation of the peninsula in 2014 that became the point after which Russia began to show disrespect for the world order. The totality of these statements — from admitting his own mistakes to accusations against Moscow — forms a picture of the president's public position, combining personal acknowledgment of managerial fatigue with hard geopolitical rhetoric. ## 🔍 Fact-Check Verification - ["You don't want to, but you have to": Zelensky admits he makes many mistakes](https://www.rbc.ua/ukr/news/ne-hochesh-ale-musish-zelenskiy-ziznavsya-1790215155.html) - Первичная дословная цитата интервью WSJ: признание ошибок, цитата про «сотни соглашений ежедневно», сомнение в способности справляться со стрессом, заявления об Одессе/Харькове/Днепре и о Крыме. - [Zelensky states his health is deteriorating](https://www.osnmedia.ru/world/zelenskij-zayavil-ob-uhudshenii-svoego-zdorovya/) - Формулировка «ухудшение здоровья» является интерпретацией цитаты про стресс; прямой медицинской формулировки в дословной цитате РБК/WSJ нет. - [Zelensky says his well-being is allegedly worsening due to stress](https://life.ru/p/zelenskiy-zayavil-ob-uhudshenii-samochuvstviya-iz-za-postoyannogo-stressa) - Само издание использует слово «якобы», что подтверждает интерпретационный характер подачи «ухудшения самочувствия». - [Zelensky complains about deteriorating health](https://news.rambler.ru/world/57113983-zelenskiy-pozhalovalsya-na-uhudshenie-zdorovya/) - Аналогичная интерпретация цитаты про стресс как жалобы на здоровье; не подтверждена дословной цитатой. ## ❓ FAQ ### Q: Did Zelensky admit that he made mistakes during the war? **A:** Yes. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal he said outright that he had made many mistakes over the course of the war, explaining this by the need to conclude "hundreds of agreements every day" and to make complex, sensitive decisions. ### Q: Did Zelensky mention deteriorating health? **A:** In the verbatim quote he says he is not sure whether he is coping with the stress, and that sometimes he does things he "doesn't want to but has to." There is no direct phrasing about deteriorating health in the quote; such words appeared in the interpretation of a number of outlets. ### Q: Which cities did Zelensky name as Russia's targets? **A:** According to him, Putin wants to seize Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipro and other Ukrainian cities; Zelensky linked the spread of war and instability to the actions of the Russian leader.