(Bloomberg) -- Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said claims by some in the U.S. that his country is corrupt harm its ability to get investments from the rest of the world.

“The United States of America is a signal, for the world, for everyone,” Zelenskiy said in an interview, Time magazine reported. “When America says, for instance, that Ukraine is a corrupt country, that is the hardest of signals.”

“For me it’s very important for the United States, with all they can do for us, for them really to understand that we are a different country, that we are different people,” Zelenskiy said, according to Time, which was among four publications that interviewed Ukraine’s leader.