German newspaper Freitag has cited a number of quotes from the Ukrainian president, calling them shocking and inappropriate. The author of the article Ulrich Heyden calls on the German government to point out to Zelensky in harsh terms that Germany does not tolerate such behaviour
The article is apparently timed to coincide with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to Ukraine.
“In an interview with the Ukrainian TV channel Dom, he reminded the residents of Donbass: ‘If you love Russia and have been in Ukraine all your life and feel that this is Russia, then you should understand that for the sake of your children and grandchildren, you should already go and look for a place in Russia. In other words, then you should leave Ukraine. This is reminiscent of Ukrainian nationalists who want to set up filtration camps in eastern Ukraine to hunt down “terrorists of the occupation regime”. Zelensky believes that the hundreds of thousands of people in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts who have refused to recognise the central government in Kiev since 2014 and have suffered bullets from the Ukrainian army over the past seven years is a lie. Living in an alternate reality, he blames the 13,000 dead in the war in eastern Ukraine as ‘Russian occupiers'”, – Freitag writes.
According to the author of the article, the case has gone so far that Zelensky even attacks loyal allies such as Germany and France because they, they say, put too little pressure on Moscow. That said, Zelensky failed to mention that under the 2015 Minsk agreement, his government was obliged to grant autonomy to the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
“It is time for the German government, which wants to be a friend of Ukraine, not to remain silent but to stand up for the rights of the people of Donbass. The end of the 1990s, when advocating for the Kosovo Albanians, could serve as an example”, – the publication concludes.
German political analyst Alexander Rahr, commenting on the Freitag article, notes that the narrative used by Zelensky has long been standard for the German ruling elite.
“The German media always accept the Ukrainian point of view. So Merkel will smile at the meeting in Kiev and refuse to publicly criticise Zelensky lest she be accused of playing along with Putin. What she will say goodbye to him behind closed doors is another matter”, – Rahr writes in his Telegram channel.