Volodymyr Zelensky holds a press conference in Brussels on Thursday. Photo: EPA-EFE/OLIVIER MATTHYS
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky questioned the sanity of Vladimir Putin at a press conference in Brussels on Thursday exactly as the Kremlin’s annual Direct Line phone-in, which lasted some four and a half hours, was coming to an end.
In response to Putin’s suggestion for a “high-tech duel” using Oreshnik ballistic missiles over Kyiv for the West to test its capabilities in intercepting Russia’s latest missile system, Zelensky asked if these were the words of a sane person, Ukrainian news outlet Hromadske reported.
Reacting to Putin’s comments that Zelensky was himself an illegitimate leader heading a neo-Nazi regime, Zelensky mocked Putin, calling him an “old fantasist who lives in a fishbowl”.
Zelensky said the Istanbul Accords, which Putin said should be the basis for negotiations, had never existed, saying this was little more than an ultimatum from Moscow for Kyiv to accept the seizure of Ukrainian territory, Ukrainian news agency UNIAN reported.
Putin claimed during Thursday’s call-in that a deal with Ukraine had “nearly” been reached in Istanbul in late 2022, but that it had been abandoned after former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson instead urged Kyiv to fight “to the last Ukrainian”.
Putin also said Moscow was ready to hold dialogue with Ukraine “without preconditions” while referring to a series of ultimatum-like demands he made in June, such as the withdrawal of all Ukrainian troops from the entirety of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
In other statements, Zelensky said Ukraine could not live in a frozen conflict, and needed security guarantees, stressing that there could be no ceasefire until Ukraine had such guarantees and could negotiate from a position of strength.
Zelensky added that Ukraine needed another 19 air defence systems from its Western allies to protect energy infrastructure from Russian attacks and US Patriot systems to protect its cities.
