He debuted with the Italy men's national volleyball team 2008. In the European Championship 2013 Zaytsev was named as the "Best Server". Zaytsev was the main scorer and team leader during World League 2014 and Italy achieved bronze medal. In the World League, he and his teammates won two consecutive bronze in the 2013 and 2014 editions, the latter played in Italy in Florence. He was appointed to the 2014 World Championship held in Poland. He was the leader of his team in the first round, but in the match against the United States injured his ankle, so despite the promotion of his team to second round, he did not play. In 2015 Zaytsev and Italian team achieved silver medal of the 2015 European Championship and Zaytsev was named "Best Opposite Spiker". In 2016 he achieved a silver medal at the 2016 Olympics.