"I Love You So Much I Want to Kill You": Zelenskyy on Putin’s Wars in Chechnya and Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Vladimir Putin shows no regard for his own people, sending them to die in wars of occupation, in his interview with US podcaster Lex Fridman on January 5.

Fridman suggested Zelenslyy should look at Putin as a president who loves his people and country in order to come to a negotiating table.

“It will be very difficult to negotiate. If you think that the president of a country is completely crazy, it is really hard to come to an agreement with him. You have to look at him as a serious person who loves his country and loves the people in his country,” Fridman said.

“Who are you talking about now? Who loves his country? Putin?” Zelenskyy responded to Fridman’s suggestion.

“What is his country? He happened to consider Ukraine his country,” highlighting that Putin had also waged a war against Chechnya, now part of the Russian Federation. “Who are the Chechens? A different people: another faith, another language. A million eliminated… How did he kill them? With love?” Zelenskyy added. “In Ukrainian, as we say: ‘strangling by hugging.’ I love you so much that I want to kill you. That’s his love,”

The Ukrainian president emphasized that Putin’s affection is not for the Russian people at large, but rather for his inner circle. “He loves his inner circle. It’s only a small part of the people. He doesn't love them,” Zelenskyy said. “You cannot send your people to another land to die, knowing that they will die.”

In a statement shared on January 5, Zelenskyy stated that Russia launched 103 drones at Ukraine overnight, with 8,755 foreign-made components identified in the wreckage.