Zelenskyy rejects Putin's ultimatum, saying Russian leader is reviving Nazism

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stressed that Putin's so-called ultimatum regarding "peace talks" with Ukraine does not differ from his earlier "proposals" and compared them to the actions of Nazi Germany.

The president stressed in an interview with the Italian TV channel Sky TG24 that Putin's "conditions" are "ultimatums, no different from other ultimatums he has made before."

"At present, we see that he [Putin – ed.] is reviving Nazism. This is a new wave of this Nazism, which is Russian Nazism," Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy explained that the Kremlin leader is seeking to seize both Russian-occupied and non-occupied territories of Ukraine.

"This is the same thing [Nazi Germany's leader Adolf] Hitler did when he said: 'Give me a part of Czechoslovakia, and that will be the end of it'. But no, this is a lie – a historical lie. After that, there was Poland, then the occupation of the whole of Europe," Zelenskyy stressed.

"You know that this wave of Nazism never stops. It has come to different places on Earth, so we should not trust these claims because Putin is following the same path. He is now talking about four oblasts, he used to talk about Crimea and Donbas," Zelenskyy concluded.

On Friday, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin came up with new "conditions for the start of peace talks": Ukrainian forces must withdraw from the territory of four Ukrainian oblasts, parts of which are occupied by Russia, and Kyiv must declare that it has no plans to join NATO.

Putin issued his statement on the eve of the Global Peace Summit in Switzerland, an event to which Russia was neither invited nor recognised as a genuine peace initiative.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry stated that with his so-called ultimatum regarding "peace talks", Russian leader Vladimir Putin aims to disrupt the Global Peace Summit in Switzerland.