Speaking through a translator, Zelensky told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that his early optimism on the negotiations has stalled.

“I can’t see their willingness, nor can I see any practicality in what we are talking about,” Zelensky said, adding that he wants to speak with Putin directly.

Putin, he said, needs to be “shoved into the reality of today — not being in this bubble, this alternative reality of his that he has been building for quite a long time.”

The Kremlin leader “does not fully understand what’s going on,” Zelensky said, adding the war will not end until Putin sees the truth and exits his “world of propaganda.”

“Perhaps then will he understand we should start talking and should put [an] end to this war that he launched.”