Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has predicted that Vladimir Putin will die before claiming victory over Ukraine and that he could be dead within ten years.
In a signal that Kyiv is hunkering down for years more of fighting and conflict with Russia, President Zelensky has suggested a war of attrition that will ultimately outlast Putin.
In an interview with Brazilian TV channel GloboNews Zelensky said in comments translated by the Kyiv Post: “Putin will not live for so many years… At the pace at which he is fighting with us, he didn’t fight [like that] in Syria.
“He won’t withstand it. He won’t live for 30 more years. He will die – this is completely clear. But he won’t survive ten years either. He’s not the same figure anymore.”
Zelensky went on to say that his government has no interest in agreeing to a ceasefire, which he said would only be used by the Kremlin to strengthen its military position and gain international support.
Over the weekend, President Vladimir Putin said that he would be willing to discuss a potential ceasefire, but only if Ukraine abandons its counteroffensive attempts to reclaim territories seized by the Russians.
The remarks from Zelensky concerning the future death of Putin is part of a cycle of escalating rhetoric playing out in paralel to the war itself, with former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev threatening the use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine and Zelenksy saying warning that the “war is returning to the territory of Russia,” amid a series of suicide drone strikes on Moscow.
On Tuesday, the IQ-Quarter building, located just 7.2 km (4.5 miles) from the Kremlin, was struck for the second time, following a similar drone strike on Sunday. The building is home to several government agencies, including the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Digital Development and Communications, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said following the attack that there were no casualties as a result of the strike.
An adviser to Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak, warned that more drone strikes will be coming to Russian lands, writing on X, formerly known as Twitter on Tuesday: “Moscow is rapidly getting used to a full-fledged war, which, in turn, will soon finally move to the territory of the “authors of the war” to collect all their debts.”
“Everything that will happen in Russia is an objective historical process. More unidentified drones, more collapse, more civil conflicts, more war.”
In May, the Kremlin claimed that Ukraine had attempted to assassinate Putin with a drone strike on the Kremlin, however, Kyiv denied involvement in the attack.
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