Trump: Zelenskyy only trump card – me, without that thing would have been a total disaster

US President Donald Trump has said he is the only trump card Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has and that without him there would have been a "total disaster".

"Well, he doesn't have the cards. He didn't – he didn't have the cards from Day 1 [of Russia's full-scale invasion – ed.]," Trump said in an interview with The New York Times.

Trump added that Zelenskyy has "only got one thing" and that is himself – Donald Trump.

"If he doesn't have Donald Trump, that thing would have been a total disaster, and he knows it, and the European leaders know, and everybody knows it," the US president said.

In the same interview, Trump said he is ready to take on commitments regarding US participation in Ukraine's future defence, but, he said, only because he is confident Russia will not try to invade again.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that following the talks in Paris with the US side, a document on security guarantees is "essentially ready" to be finalised with Trump.