Ukrainian President Zelensky says he is not sure Putin is still alive
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he does not understand with whom in Russia to negotiate and is even not sure that Russian President Vladimir Putin is still alive. "Today I don't quite understand whom to talk to and what to talk about. I'm not sure that the Russian President, who sometimes appears on the chroma key, that this is him. I don't quite understand if he is alive, whether he makes decisions or who makes decisions there. What's this circle of faces? I have no such information," Zelensky said, speaking via video conference at the Ukrainian Breakfast at the World Economic Forum in Davos .
"I don't quite understand how you can promise European leaders one thing and start a full-scale invasion of the country the next day. I just don't quite understand who we're dealing with. When we say "peace talks", I don't quite understand with whom. It seems to me that Russia should first find "someone" and then offer "something," Zelensky continued.
Answering a question about negotiations with Russia, he noted that during his presidency, the Ukrainian side did everything to liberate its lands through diplomacy, and constantly offered negotiations. "But someone did not want to, then someone did not have time, someone did not believe, and someone put forward conditions," the President of Ukraine said.
The Kremlin, commenting on the words of Vladimir Zelensky, said that Russia and Putin are a big problem for Ukraine and its leader. "Purely psychologically, Zelensky would prefer that neither Russia nor Putin existed. But the sooner he realizes that both Russia and Putin are there and will be, the sooner everything anti-Russian is abandoned, the better for a country like Ukraine," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that the sooner Ukraine "shows readiness to take into account Russia's demands," the faster the Ukrainian people will recover "after the tragedy that the Kyiv regime has created."
Moscow has repeatedly stated that Russia is ready for peace talks with Ukraine, but there is no dialogue allegedly because of Kyiv's position. At the same time, the Kremlin said that negotiations can take place only on Russia’s terms. According to Moscow, the return of the annexed Ukrainian territories cannot be a topic for negotiations. Ukraine, in turn, stated that it was not ready for ultimatums and negotiations with the current president of Russia.