The European Union (EU) criticized the Western media’s interview with President Vladimir Putin as “nothing more than a repetition of the usual ‘lies’ and ‘war propaganda’ aimed at justifying atrocities and normalizing aggression.”
According to the British daily Guardian on the 9th (local time), European Commission spokeswoman Anita Hipper criticized Putin, saying, “We didn’t see anything new in Putin’s interview the night before.”
“We regret that President Putin has actually been provided with a platform to manipulate and spread propaganda,” Hipper said. “President Putin has further reinforced his well-known lies about Ukraine. “This is a dangerous lie,” he added.
In an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson on the 8th (local time), Putin claimed that the West could stop the war by cutting off arms supplies to Ukraine.
In response, the EU announced on the 9th that it will “stand by Ukraine’s side every day” and that it will supply 500,000 rounds of ammunition by March and achieve its goal of providing 1 million rounds of ammunition by December.
Putin also said Russia was ready to negotiate the release of Wall Street Journal (WSJ) journalist Evan Gershkovic, who was detained on espionage charges, through a prisoner exchange with a Russian agent imprisoned in Germany.
Putin pointed to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s refusal to hold talks with Russia, adding that the United States should stop supplying arms to Ukraine and force Ukraine, considered a “satellite state” of the United States, to negotiate.
“Russia has never refused to negotiate,” he said. “The current Ukrainian leadership must now come to the negotiating table,” he said.
Other Western officials and experts also reacted with disappointment to President Putin’s interview.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunnack called Putin’s claim that the war in Ukraine was a result of NATO expansion “manifestly absurd.”
Guy Verhofstadt, a member of the European Parliament and former Belgian Prime Minister, said of the Putin interview, “The United States will have a hard time with him (Putin) spreading unfiltered lies unchallenged,” and lamented, “This is how democracy dies.” did.
A senior official at Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs suggested watching ’20 Days in Mariupol’ instead of the Putin interview.
’20 Days in Mariupol’ is a documentary film about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, produced by photojournalist and film director Mstislav Chernov. It was well received as a film that recorded the battle that took place for about two months over the port city of Mariupol, on the front line during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and was also selected as a finalist in the Academy Documentary Film and International Feature Film categories at the 96th Academy Awards.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski reacted to the interview between Tucker Carlson and Vladimir Putin, calling it “shocking.”
“We are used to paranoid justifications for a Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022,” he said. “What’s shocking is that this time it was an American journalist who made it possible.”
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.