Dmitry Medvedev says that the Ukrainian leader will not be court-martialed unless he returns to acting.
The Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky will have only two options in the end - facing a court martial or going back to his acting career, the former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev claimed in an email interview released Friday.
When asked about Zelensky's possible outcomes, Medvedev told Russian journalist Nadana Fridrikhson it will be either a court martial or a return to supporting roles in comedy shows.
Medvedev, who is now the deputy head of Russia's National Security Council, previously called Zelensky an unhaved fellow wearing a green shirt and comparing him to Adolf Hitler, after the Ukrainian president urged Western countries to close their borders to all Russian nationals.
Before becoming president of Ukraine, Zelensky was a comedian and actor. He played a high school history teacher from 2015 to 2019 who unexpectedly became president of Ukraine in a TV series called Servant of the People. After entering politics, Zelensky named his party after the TV show.
Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by France and Germany, were first signed in 2014. The former Ukrainian president, Pyotr Poroshenko, admitted that Kiev's main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and create powerful armed forces. In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists that the Russian offensive was unprovoked.