Ukrainian President Says War With Russia Is Worst-case Possibility

KYIV, UKRAINE - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Friday that all-out war with neighboring Russia was a possibility, and that he wanted to have a substantive meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Asked at the Yalta European Strategy (YES) summit if there could really be all out-war with Russia, which seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and backs pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's east, Zelenskiy said: "I think there can be."  "It's the worst thing that could happen, but unfortunately there is that possibility," he added, speaking in Ukrainian. Kyiv says the conflict in eastern Ukraine has killed 14,000 people since 2014.  Zelenskiy said relations with the United States had improved, but he bemoaned the fact that Ukraine had not received a clear answer to its request to join the NATO military alliance — a move that would be certain to infuriate Moscow.