The Ukrainian leader was elected on promises of peace, but ended up serving the agenda of radical nationalists, the Russian leader has said
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky broke his campaign promises to reach peace and instead pursued the agenda of radical nationalists, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
In an interview with India Today released on Thursday, Putin said that when Zelensky came to power, he pledged to seek peace and end the hostilities in Donbass – then part of Ukraine – “at any cost,” including his own career, but now “everything looks completely different.”
“Like his predecessors, he started to heed not the interests of the people, but the interests of a narrow group of nationalists, radically-minded nationalists. In essence, he is doing their bidding,” Putin said.
Putin described the authorities in Kiev as “very similar to a neo-Nazi regime,” arguing that what he called an extreme form of nationalism “is almost the same” as neo-Nazism. As a result, he added that the leadership in Kiev is seeking to impose its terms on the battlefield – something Putin said Ukraine is not particularly successful at.
Ukraine, the Russian president said, should understand that “the best way” to end the conflict remains a peaceful settlement on terms that Russia tried to negotiate in 2022 – referring to demands that Kiev should stay out of NATO, and commit to denazification and demilitarization.
Zelensky, elected in 2019, had campaigned on promises to end the conflict in Donbass and tackle endemic corruption. Efforts to do the former hinged on the 2014 and 2015 Minsk agreements which were designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state.
Moscow, however, accused Kiev of failing to implement the accords as the ceasefire in the region was often violated and the death toll, including among civilians, continued to grow. Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the Minsk agreements to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.” In February 2022, Russia sent troops into Ukraine “to protect the people of Donbass from genocide.”
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