Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a new interview with The Wall Street Journal that establishing a ceasefire in the war with Russia while allowing it to maintain control of parts of Ukraine would result in a prolonged conflict.

"Freezing the conflict with the Russian Federation means a pause that gives the Russian Federation a break for rest," Zelenskyy said, adding, "They will not use this pause to change their geopolitics or to renounce their claims on the former Soviet republics."

Zelenskyy said Russia would use a ceasefire to regain strength and then resume its offensive against Ukraine later on.

Russia would "rest and in two or three years, it will seize two more regions and say again: Freeze the conflict. And it will keep going further and further. One hundred percent," Zelenskky said.

Ukrainians believe "all the territories must be liberated" before negotiations can start, he said. "Our people are convinced we can do it. And the faster we do it, the fewer will die."

"We would prefer to de-occupy in a way that's not military and to save lives," Zelenskyy went on to say. "But we are dealing with who we are dealing with. Until they get smashed in the face, they won't understand anything."

Zelenskyy's comments came after Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week accused Ukraine of standing in the way of a draft peace deal from March. 

The Ukrainian leader ripped into Putin in response, telling The Wall Street Journal: "He came here without talking, killed people, displaced 12 million, and now says Ukraine doesn't want to negotiate."

"They just murder people, destroy cities, enter them, and then say: 'Let's negotiate.' With whom can they talk? With rocks? They are covered in blood, and this blood is impossible to wash off. We will not let them wash it off," he added.