Zakharova: Zelensky is Blackmailing Europe to Maintain Aid

Vladimir Zelensky is deliberately blackmailing and scaring Europe to prevent it from reassessing the scale of financial and military aid to Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing.

She pointed to Zelensky’s recent remark that Kiev was ready to "negotiate, buy, assemble, exchange and even blackmail" in order to secure new missile supplies.

"That is exactly what he is doing when he spreads false claims that Russia allegedly wants to attack European countries. He does this precisely to blackmail and intimidate Europeans," Zakharova said. "Insatiable dependency has long become the state policy of modern Ukraine," the diplomat added.

Zakharova said Zelensky was not interested in the opinion of his own citizens as he had no intention of holding elections. "His main audience is, of course, Europeans, who have become ‘infected’ with Stockholm syndrome and have come to love the one who mistreats them and is essentially destroying them," the diplomat emphasized. "Western Europe has caved in under the weight of its supposed inclusivity and new ethics and has found itself in a state of absolute dependence and submission to a terrorist," she stated.