Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russian President Vladimir Putin's words about the loss of Ukrainian statehood show that Moscow's goal is occupation of the entire country, and not just control over Donbas or the eastern regions. Zelensky commented on the statement during the Helsinki Security Forum.
“This is a weakness of the world - that no one stops such statements”, Zelensky said. He recalled that in 2005, Putin called the collapse of the Soviet Union the greatest tragedy of the 20th century, and in 2025, he indicated geopolitical goals as his main goals.
Zelensky linked Putin's words to the Soviet legacy
The Ukrainian president said that Putin did not indicate World War I, World War II, or the Chernobyl accident as the greatest tragedies. According to Zelensky, this shows that the Russian leadership puts political and geopolitical goals above events related to human casualties.
„Therefore, his goal is clear - to bring back the Soviet Union. "His goal is not the eastern part of Ukraine, his goal is not Donbas, his goal is the occupation of our entire country," Zelensky said.
He added that Putin's statement shows how the Russian president sees the possible end of the war and what he wants to achieve. In the official announcement of his participation in the forum, Zelensky described the Russian leader's words as a signal that his goals have not changed and that Moscow seeks to restore the influence that the Soviet Union had.
What Putin said
On October 1, Vladimir Putin said: "Ukraine cannot exist independently, it is being governed from the outside and is losing its statehood." The statement was made in the context of his claims that the war was imposed on Russia by Western and Ukrainian policies.
Putin accused Western countries of Russophobia, of plans to deploy NATO infrastructure and of supporting Kiev. He also said that Russian troops were guided by humanitarian norms and had not attacked non-military targets first - claims that are part of Russia's position on the war.
Zelensky's statement comes against the backdrop of ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine. He called on the international community to respond to statements that question the country's sovereignty and right to exist as an independent state.
Sources: UNIAN