Photo: A frame from the video
Ukrainians and Russians are not a single people, despite the fact that they have a lot in common, President Vladimir Zelensky said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine. Earlier, during the” Direct Line”, Vladimir Putin said that Russians and Ukrainians are one people.
“I do not believe that the Ukrainian people are unfriendly. Nothing like that, we are a single whole, ” the head of state said. And he added that it is “incomprehensible” that in Ukraine Russians refused to be recognized as an indigenous people. Putin is sure that this will lead to a reduction in the number of Russians in the country.
“If we were one people, then in Moscow, most likely, hryvnia would go, and a yellow-blue flag would fly over the State Duma,” Zelensky said. He stressed that we are “definitely” not one people. But the common goal should be to end the war in the Donbass and “return” the territories to Ukraine.
“And one more thing-it is impossible to talk about” one people” at the same time and openly seize our territories and continue the slaughter in the Donbas, ” Zelensky added.
During the” Direct Line”, Vladimir Putin was asked why Ukraine was not included in the list of unfriendly countries published by the government in May. The President explained that he considers Ukrainians and Russians “a single whole”. According to him, it is not the people who are unfriendly towards Russia, but the current Ukrainian government.
In addition, Putin criticized the bill of Kiev on indigenous peoples, where for some unknown reason the Russians did not get, calling the measures comparable “with the use of some weapons of mass destruction.” According to the President of the Russian Federation, such a decision may lead to the decision of some residents to leave Ukraine, after which the total number of Russians in the country will greatly decrease.