President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday in an interview to AFP slammed Western countries which he said supported Ukraine but were also “afraid” of any clear defeat for Moscow.

“We are in a nonsense situation where the West is afraid that Russia will lose the war. And it does not want Ukraine to lose it,” Mr Zelensky said.

Mr Zelensky also rejected a French call for an Olympic truce this summer, saying it could just help Russia move its troops and equipment.

The Ukrainian president said he had spoken to Emmanuel Macron, the French president, who made the appeal and told him: “Let’s be honest… Emmanuel, I don’t believe it”.

“Who can guarantee that Russia will not use this time to bring its forces to our territory?” Zelensky said, adding: “First of all, we don’t trust Putin”.

“We are against any truce that plays into the hands of the enemy,” he said.

“If it’s a truce, an Olympic truce for the duration of the Olympics, a land truce, they will have an advantage,” he said, explaining that there was “a risk that they will bring heavy equipment to our territory and no one will be able to stop them”.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, earlier on Friday also suggested that Moscow would not support the idea of a truce during the games in Paris this summer.