It was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s first major interview to a group of Russian journalists, ever since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. The 90-minute interview to four Russian journalists was promptly banned by Roskomnadzor, Kremlin’s telecommunications regulator. A recent law was passed by the Kremlin so that they can jail a journalist or any body who defies the official version of the Ukraine war, propagated by the government-backed media in Russia.

But what was there in the interview that irked Putin and his acolytes in the Kremlin so much? Well, each and every word uttered by Putin’s Ukrainian counterpart sounded sacrilegious because it was a diametrically opposite view catered by the official Russian media to its people. The war has been projected by Russia as a “special military operation” meant to “denazify” and “liberate” the Russian-speaking eastern region of Ukraine.

Zelensky, speaking both in chaste Russian and some Ukrainian, busted a lot of myths created by Putin & company. Defying the ban, some media outlets published the interview and it was immediately viewed 1 million times within hours, projecting a different picture of the war to Russians.

First of all, Zelensky gave a macabre description of the ravages of war that have affected both Ukrainian civilians and Russian soldiers. He described the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Mariupol where Russian shelling had destroyed 90 percent of buildings and killed thousands who lay dead on the streets. “Corpses are just lying around—no one removes them—Russian soldiers and citizens of Ukraine," he said in the interview. Then he accused Russia of kidnapping at least 2,000 children from the besieged city. Furthermore, he also accused the Russian government of forging purportedly Ukrainian intelligence documents to show that Ukraine had planned a pre-emptive attack on Donbas.

When Russia banned the interview, Zelensky said Russia was frightened that the interview would expose the reality of brutal assault on Ukraine.

READ MORE:

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/28/media/zelzensky-interview-banned/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/27/world/europe/russia-media-zelensky.html

https://www.newsweek.com/volodymyr-zelensky-interview-russian-journalists-banned-1692380