“Right now, I don’t understand who to talk to. I am not sure whether the president of Russia is still alive.”
By World Israel News Staff
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday that he does not “quite understand if [Russian President Vladimir Putin] is alive or whether he makes decisions.”
“Right now, I don’t understand who to talk to. I am not sure whether the president of Russia is still alive,” Zelensky said in a virtual broadcast at the WEC’s Ukrainian breakfast.
“What group of people [could be making any decisions in Russia]? I don’t have that kind of information,” he added.
“I don’t quite understand how you can promise European leaders one thing, and the next day launch a full-scale invasion of a country. I just don’t quite understand with whom we are dealing. When we say ‘peace talks,’ I don’t quite understand with whom [we should be negotiating],” he said.
“We are talking to you now: you know exactly who I am, and I know exactly who you are. There are witnesses to the fact that we are alive. And even if we talk about different things, we can reach a consensus.”
The Kremlin did not issue an outright denial that Putin was dead, but only said that Zelensky on a “psychological level,” would “prefer that neither Russia nor Putin exist.
“But the sooner the Ukrainian regime realizes…that Russia and Putin exist and will [continue to] exist, that sooner or later [Ukraine] will still have to give up everything anti-Russian, the better for a country like Ukraine,” Russian press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.
Speculation that Putin is gravely ill has been rife for months after several cancellations of appearances.