Zelensky: 'Putin feels weakness like an animal, because he is an animal'

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this in a New Year's interview with The Economist, Ukrinform reports.

According to Zelensky, the West has lost a sense of urgency and many Ukrainians have lost a sense of existential threat.

"Maybe we did not succeed [in 2023] as the world wanted. Maybe not everything is as fast as someone imagined," he said, adding that the idea that Putin is winning is no more than a "feeling." The reality, he said, is that Russian forces are still being slaughtered in places like Avdiivka, from where he has just returned.

"Thousands, thousands of killed Russian soldiers, nobody even took them away," Zelensky added.

By supporting Ukraine, Europe protects itself from Russian aggression, Zelensky said.

"Giving us money or giving us weapons, you support yourself. You save your children, not ours," he said.

If Russia is allowed to take Ukrainian children, "they will take other children." If Russia violates the rights of Ukrainians, "it will violate the rights in the world."

If Ukraine loses, Putin will bring his wars closer to the West.

"Putin feels weakness like an animal, because he is an animal. He senses blood, he senses his strength. And he will eat you for dinner with all your EU, NATO, freedom, and democracy," Zelensky said.

"Maybe something is missing. Or maybe someone is missing. Someone who can talk about Ukraine as a defense of all of us," Zelensky said.

According to the president, "intelligence services of several European countries have started to [examine] a possibility of attack on their territory from Russia... Even those countries that were not in the USSR."