Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski has challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to a «single combat» in the ring «if he is a man» in an interview with French television.
«A man, if he is a real man, when he wants to send a message to someone or if he wants to beat him up, he does it without resorting to the services of an intermediary (…). If I had such a message to convey to Putin, I would do it alone,» Zelenski said in an interview broadcast by French public television LCI.
The Ukrainian leader has said he is ready to fight in «single combat» with Putin «starting tomorrow». «But this would be the last summit of President Putin,» he has joked.
Zelenski thus responds to the information that has been circulating about the order to kill Zelenski that Putin would have given to the president of the Russian region of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadirov, shortly after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, last February 24.
Zelenski has also raised the possibility of Putin’s death as a way to stop the war. «When a person dies, all the institutions stop», said the Ukrainian president.
For Zelenski Putin’s strategy is comparable to that of Nazi Germany. «Russia has not started a new form of war. It is doing what Hitler’s fascist regime did,» he said, referring to the Russian bombing of civilian infrastructure to provoke panic among the population.
As for Russia’s threats to use nuclear weapons, Zelenski stressed that it is «a sign of weakness», of «mental disorder» and of «medical problems». For him «only the sick, absolutely sick, could take such a step».
Zelenski also referred to the more than two million Ukrainians who have been deported to Russia since the beginning of the invasion, many of them children.
«We have impressive figures. We are talking about 50,000 to 200,000 children, of whom we know the details: names, dates of birth, and so on,» he explained. Questioned whether they left Ukraine on their own volition, Zelenski assured that «many are hostages today».
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
