Ukraine's Zelenskyy questions if Putin is 'still alive'; Russia says 'keep in mind...'

Russia on Thursday, January 18, responded to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's query during a speech at World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos whether or not Russia's President Vladimir Putin was "still alive." As he addressed the forum via a video link on January 19, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy clarified that he will hold no negotaitions or talks with Russia with respect to ongoing war in his country, adding that "he does not understand with whom to negotiate and what." Russia should "find someone” for negotiations before putting forward any suggestions, Ukraine's leader said, addressing the World Economic Forum on Thursday in Davos. He then cast doubts whether Putin was alive. 

"I'm not sure that Russia's president, who sometimes appears (on TV with visual effects), is really him," Zelenskyy said at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos on Jan. 19.

Zelenskyy 'hopes neither Russia nor Putin exist': Peskov

Reacting to Zelesnkyy's speculations, Putin's official spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday said that Russia and Putin "are a big problem for both Ukraine and Zelenskyy." Peskov noted at a briefing that "it is clear that purely psychologically, Zelenskyy would prefer that neither Russia nor Putin exist," in a sarcastic response to Ukraine President's claims. "Yet, the sooner the Ukrainian regime realises that Russia and Putin exist and will exist, the sooner they give up on everything anti-Russian, the better it is for a country like Ukraine," Peskov told reporters at the briefing. 

Moscow had also earlier rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s proposed “peace formula” as a basis for negotiations, saying that Kyiv, in fact, is still not ready for "real peace talks," and has been influenced by the West. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told state-run RIA news agency that Zelenskyy's demands in his proposal of driving Russia out of eastern Ukraine as well as the 2014-annexed Crimea with the help of his Western allies is “an illusion.” Just hours after Lavrov slammed Zelenskyy's peace formula, Ukrainian officials announced that several cities came under heavy Russian missile attacks. Russia has called on Ukraine to accept the annexation of Luhansk and Donetsk in the east, and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south to establish any grounds of talks. 

No peace plan “that does not take into account today’s realities regarding Russian territory, with the entry of four regions into Russia,” Kremlin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said separately at a state briefing.  

Image: AP