President Zelensky says Putin is a maniac who "ordered the murder of his family"

In an interview with African media, Zelensky recalled that when Russian troops invaded Ukraine and approached Kiev, Ukrainian authorities refused to obey Russian President Putin's ultimatums. He also recalled several moments with Russian ultimatums, but emphasised that the Ukrainian authorities insisted on a diplomatic format of conversations respecting Ukrainian sovereignty.

When he ordered my assassination, my family and my entourage - we said that this ultimatum would not pass either," Zelensky said.

However, after the occupation of Bucha, the occupiers massively violently murdered civilians, which caused disgust to negotiate with Putin, whom Zelensky called a maniac with hands in blood.

Who is ready to talk to this maniac? And then we said that the time will come, and the war will still, end diplomatically, but to talk to this man - sorry, he has his hands up to his elbows in blood," Zelensky said. "Russia said - we are ready to talk. At the same time, seized a nuclear power plant and cut us off from light in winter. There hasn't been a blackout on this continent in the last 100 years. The last blackouts were under Hitler, under fascism. And they say, how can we compare? So that he is doing the same thing that Hitler did," Zelensky emphasised.

Zelensky also noted that the Russian army used the same methods of capture as Nazi Germany, but failed to take Kiev. When liberating the de-occupied villages, mass graves of tortured Ukrainians were discovered. This raised doubts about the possibility of establishing a dialogue with such a leader, who, according to Zelensky, is a sadist.

In every village that we de-occupied, in every next village there were mass graves of tortured Ukrainians. In every one without exception. And with every step they said, how can you communicate with him? And the partners who wanted us to communicate, with each step became less and less, because fewer and fewer people believed that he was the president, and more and more realised that he was just a sadist," Zelensky stressed.

Speaking about the humanitarian initiative to deliver grain, Zelenskyy noted that Russia was blocking this initiative, which had a negative impact on the nations that needed Ukrainian grain.