Putin wants all of Ukraine, not just Donbas, Zelenskyy says
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine (photo: Getty Images)
Russian leader Vladimir Putin's claims that Ukraine is allegedly losing its statehood show what he really wants to achieve through the war, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at the Helsinki Security Forum.
The president called it a "weakness of the world" that no one is stopping such statements by the Russian leader.
"Why is it a weakness? Because back in 2005, if I'm not mistaken, the Kremlin leader said that the greatest tragedy of the 20th century was the collapse of the Soviet Union. If you remember. So it seems to me that as early as 2005, he gave a geopolitical answer as to what his main goals were," the president recalled.
Zelenskyy added that Putin did not mention World War I, did not acknowledge World War II, and did not call Chornobyl the greatest tragedy.
"He did not mention anything connected with human lives. He mentioned the collapse of the Soviet Union as the greatest collapse of the 20th century. And so, his goal is obviously clear: to bring the Soviet Union back. That is why his goal is not the east of Ukraine. His goal is not Donbas. His goal is the occupation of our entire country," the president stressed.
The president said that Putin's remarks about Ukraine losing its statehood demonstrate what he really wants and how he sees the war ending.
What preceded this
On Thursday, October 1, Russian leader Vladimir Putin claimed that Ukraine was allegedly losing its statehood.
"Ukraine cannot exist independently, is controlled from outside, and is losing its statehood," the Kremlin leader said.
In addition, Putin claimed that Ukraine allegedly cannot strike deep into Russian territory without Western assistance.
Putin also claimed that it was not Russia that started the war, but that they started fighting against it by encouraging nationalism in Ukraine. Putin also claimed that Russian forces had allegedly never violated the rules of warfare.
In addition, the Kremlin leader said that the letters to NATO "are not intimidation; they are a response to attempts to intimidate us." At the same time, he said that in the event of a direct attack on the Kaliningrad region, Russia would use all available types of weapons.
