Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was “always ready” to step into the ring with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The statement came at a relaxed moment of an interview with French public broadcaster LCI, which aired this Saturday (17). “Tomorrow. I’m at his disposal,” the Ukrainian leader continued, laughing.
When asked if he thought Putin harbored some kind of personal hatred towards him, Zelenskyy replied. “When a real man wants to send someone a message, he does it himself, without going through a middleman. If I had to deliver such a message to Putin, I would do it directly,” the Ukrainian said more seriously. who rose to fame as president in the comedy series Servants of the People before his rise to power.
Zelensky’s claim comes a day after Russian forces eliminated more than 50% of Ukraine’s power in one of the largest such actions since Moscow began targeting the country’s infrastructure in October. On Saturday morning, basic Kiev services like water supply and the metro system resumed but a quarter of the capital’s residents remained without heating, while a third remained without electricity.
Incidentally, Moscow’s continued attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure were one of the topics of discussion interviewer Darius Rochebin asked if the strategy represented a “new form of war” against the invaded country.
On the contrary, Zelenskyy countered that this tactic had been used at many other times in history, including by the German army during World War II. “Putin’s strategy is as dirty as Hitler’s was in his time, but the world survived this kind of aggression and will survive again,” he said.
By the way, it wasn’t the first time that the Ukrainian drew level with the two. In a landmark video released in May, before the Ukraine war had entered its second month, Zelenskyy said Moscow was playing a “bloody reenactment, a fanatical reenactment of Nazism.”
Putin, on the other hand, justified the invasion of the neighboring country by claiming that it had to be “denazified,” which experts have disputed fiercely.
Back to the interview: The comparison was one of many moments in which Zelenskyy took the opportunity to criticize Putin personally. At one point he claimed that Russia and its environs are pursuing a policy that “reflects the worst of the Soviet era” and divides the population into “patricians and commoners.” Afterwards, he said his nuclear threats prove his “fragility and mental disorder.”
Zelenskyi has again stated that he does not intend to negotiate a peace treaty with the Kremlin. “It’s very difficult to accept dialogue with someone when that person is armed with a machine gun or a nuclear weapon,” he said. “This man wants no peace but his way.”
Out there
The Ukrainian’s official position is to sit at the table with Russia only when all the occupied territories of his country are liberated. The crux of this claim is that it includes Crimea, annexed in 2014, and the areas of Donbass that have been under Russian control since this year, following the civil war following the ousting of a proMoscow government in Kyiv.
On the 5th, amid American efforts to open negotiating channels, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said talks should begin as soon as Russia withdraws its troops from the areas it occupied on February 24 that is, excluding Russianspeaking areas under Moscow control since 2014 from the prerequisite.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian military officials continue to warn the West of renewed Russian momentum for an offensive early next year. In recent interviews, they said Moscow’s idea is to buy time with infrastructure disruptions while preparing its 320,000 mobilized reservists.
Also on Saturday (17th), the Kremlin announced that Putin had met with his armed forces commanders in Moscow to hear their views on how the military operation in Ukraine should proceed.