3 weeks ago
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Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has ruled out any negotiations with Russia, sending a crude message to Moscow during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Zelensky has outlawed talks with Russia and insisted that only his ten-point ‘peace formula’ – amounting to a Russian surrender – can end the fighting in a just way. Moscow has dismissed his position as ridiculous.
During Monday’s press conference with Scholz, who came to Kiev even as Germany geared up for early elections, Zelensky was asked what Russia should do for peace talks to begin.
“What should Russia do? Preferably to go [somewhere vulgar],” he replied, to laughter from the press corps.
The same phrase, in Russian, was used by Ukrainian propaganda to claim a heroic last stand on Snake Island in the Black Sea, early on in the conflict. However, the unit that supposedly told off a Russian warship and heroically perished quickly showed up alive, as prisoners, and the story turned out to be fiction.
Zelensky is a “clown” pretending to be someone important, said Alexey Chepa, deputy chairman of the Russian Duma’s International Affairs Committee, adding that the Ukrainian politician needs to remember “there is a bunch of puppeteers above him.”
The West is just looking for an opportunity to get rid of Zelensky, Chepa told the Russian outlet Lenta. The US and its allies intended to use Ukraine to weaken Russia, he said.
“They failed, so they are looking for a way out of this situation,” added Chepa.
In an interview with Sky News released over the weekend, Zelensky claimed that Ukrainians who have died in the fighting since 2022 have “already won” because their deaths enabled Kiev to secure support from the West to keep fighting.
”[Our] most important weapon is our people,” Zelensky said, adding that if the West stops sending Ukraine money, weapons and ammunition, “we will lose everything.”
