Any effective peacekeeping force deployed in Ukraine will need to include U.S. troops, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait.

The head of state said that his European allies don't have enough soldiers to pose a realistic deterrent to President Vladimir Putin and any other solution would risk opening up divisions within the NATO alliance. He bristled at the idea, floated Tuesday, that the military backing of his European allies would suffice.

"It can't be without the United States. […] Even if some European friends think it can be, no it can't be. Nobody will risk without the United States," he told Bloomberg Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos.