Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for Tucker Carlson to “stop licking Putin’s a**.”
During an interview with Piers Morgan on his Uncensored YouTuber show, Zelensky called out the former Fox News host for his stance on Putin.
Carlson has previously labelled Zelensky a dictator for implementing martial law since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The presenter was also the first Western journalist to interview the Russian leader following the invasion of Ukraine. Putin made a number of false claims in the interview.
Now, Zelensky has urged Carlson to understand the situation in Ukraine better.
He told Morgan: “He [Carlson] needs to more deeply understand what’s happening in Ukraine, to stop working for Putin, to stop licking his a**, honestly.”
Zelensky continued: “When he simply says something, just throwing the words […] One must have his own opinion and understand that he probably influences people, he’s simply misinforming them.”
Last week, Carlson himself appeared on Uncensored for an interview in which he made a number of accusations about Zelensky.
He told Morgan: “The first trait of a dictator is that he is not elected. Zelensky is not elected. He has also banned a religious denomination, killed his political opponents, and banned a language group.
“To me, these all seem like traits of a dictatorship. The governments of the USA and the UK support this dictator.”
Hitting back at Carlson’s words, Zelensky said: “All that is Putin’s narrative. And regrettably this, this blogger or journalist, whatever he wants to call himself, he unfortunately fully repeats the words of Putin and what he wants.
“He works for Putin because he wants to lower me to the level of Putin.”
The Ukrainian president defended implementing martial law, meaning the country is unable to hold elections.
He said: “How can people in the occupied territories vote, millions of people?”
“How will eight million Ukrainians vote that are abroad, because of the war? Undoubtedly the war will end. The hot stage of the war will end, and then when martial law ends, then definitely elections will be called. That is needed.”
He added: “We are defending democracy, so that is needed. But please understand one thing today, everybody understands: that if we stop martial law now, that is what Putin wants. That will mean that our army, in the majority, will come back home … if there is no martial law, they will come back to their families and they will come back home. Who will be protecting us?”
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