Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday said Russian president Vladimir Putin must stop operating in an “informational bubble” with inaccurate information about the progress of the 150,000 troops he ordered to invade Ukraine last month.
Earlier on Monday, Mr Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed the invasion — which has resulted in Russia becoming the most sanctioned country on earth in recent weeks — could be halted “in a moment” if Mr Zelensky would agree to amend the Ukrainian constitution to prohibit entry into Nato or the European Union, legitimise Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, and join Russia in recognising the two Russian-backed separatist states in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine.
But Mr Zelensky rejected the Russian demands in an interview with David Muir on ABC’s World News Tonight, telling the American journalist: “This is another ultimatum, and we are not prepared for ultimatums.”
The Ukrainian president then countered with what he called a “possible solution” Mr Putin could implement regarding the “key items”.
“What needs to be done is for President Putin to stop talking and start the dialogue instead of living in the informational bubble without oxygen,” he said.
Mr Zelensky added that the Russian leader’s “bubble” is preventing him from getting clear reports of his troops’ failure to gain control over most of the country.
Since Russian troops began what the Kremlin insists on calling a “special military operation” — what the rest of the world has condemned as an illegal invasion in violation of international law — Mr Putin’s forces have suffered incredibly heavy losses to a Ukrainian defence force that has rallied to Mr Zelensky’s banner.
As of Sunday, Ukrainian officials say the Russian army has lost nearly 270 tanks to Ukrainian-fired anti-tank weapons, more than 1,000 armoured personnel carriers, and countless more heavy weapons systems, many of which have been shown stuck in the mud or being towed away by Ukrainian farmers.
And while the Kremlin says only 500 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine, Mr Zelensky’s government puts the number of Russian casualties closer to 10,000 — the heaviest losses sustained by Russia since the USSR invaded Afghanistan in the late 1970s.
But the Ukrainian leader told Muir he wasn’t sure Mr Putin was aware of the true extent of his troops’ losses.
“He is in this bubble, he’s getting this information and you don’t know how realistic the information is that he’s getting,” he said.
The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.
