President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russian dictator Vladimir Putin seeks to put his “puppet” at the head of Ukraine, as he did in Belarus, Georgia, and Chechnya, in order to prevent Ukraine’s pro-Western development path.
The head of the Ukrainian state said this in an interview with Piers Morgan, Ukrinform reports.
“It is clear I don’t suit them because here they need a puppet man. They need their man who would lead Ukraine, and frankly, that was how it was before the war, and that was how it was previously, when they had the second-largest party in our parliament. They totally controlled that party, influenced the Ukrainian parliament, and did everything so that Ukraine never chose the European path, so that it would always remain under Russia’s hood. Their desire is to install their man. To be honest, they want, in principle, to do what they did in Chechnya, thet completely destroyed it, and today it is part of their influence zone, their territories. They did it in Georgia, too. First, the conflict was frozen, and then they put their people in charge of the country. They always do it that way. They also did it, by and large, in Belarus,” Zelensky said.
He stressed that Putin does not care who exactly will be the next president of Ukraine.
“The main thing is that it be someone who is against Western values, against the West, against the European Union, who will perceive NATO as an adversary, the way Russia perceives it. Well, at least the Kremlin is doing everything so that their people see NATO as an aggressor. Although this is, of course, a defensive alliance that doesn’t attack anyone,” the President emphasized.
He recalled that, before the full-scale invasion, he had tried to negotiate with Putin more than once, but the Russian dictator did not need it because his real goal was to destroy Ukraine and its independence.
“I really wanted to even reach out to Putin by phone, it was after our Normandy meeting (in December 2019 – ed.) several times. After we agreed on a ceasefire, and they violated it, we had several calls with Putin, and then he was gone for more than a year. He was gone for a year, and after that the full-scale invasion was unleashed. Throughout this time I was reaching out, I really wanted to talk to him, to have the opportunity to meet on any terms, to talk, without any preconditions, just meet and start a dialogue about ending the war, a ceasefire again. And most importantly then, before the full-scale invasion, it was about the exchange of all prisoners of war, I wanted to bring our citizens back. What did his press secretary say then, and what did Putin say? It was ‘What is there to talk about? There is nothing to talk about. We do not understand the reasons for the meeting. Ukraine is violating the ceasefire’, although it was they who were constantly shelling us,” Zelensky noted.
He emphasized that the Russians are not ready to end the war and neither are they willing to do it.
“They do not want this war to end. Tomorrow they will say they are ready to meet directly with Trump, that they don’t need Ukraine, because this is not a war between Russia and Ukraine, there is just some kind of operation, but this is a global war between Russia and NATO, and NATO is the United States. We are ready to talk only with the United States, but this is all nonsense, they will look for reasons not to end this war. Because Putin’s only desire is for us to cease to exist,” the president said.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is afraid of direct negotiations with Ukraine, seeing such developments as a defeat and weakness.
Photo: President’s Office
Source: Putin seeks to install his "puppet" at Ukraine’s helm as he did in Belarus, Georgia - Zelensky
