Homophobic slurs were among the insults flung at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as Russian propagandists threatened retaliation against him over what Moscow says was a Kyiv-led attack on the Kremlin.
Zelensky has rejected Moscow’s claims that Ukraine was behind a drone strike at the heart of Russian power on Wednesday, but even the manner of his denial at a press conference in Helsinki was the subject of taunts by the host on the Russia 1 channel, Vladimir Solovyov.
“He is very coquettish, he even has LGBTQ mannerisms,” Solovyov said on his nightly program in a clip tweeted by journalist and Russia watcher Julia Davis. “He pouts his lips like a duck’s behind in trying to say something about the country he is in.”
Solovyov also said in his monologue that Zelensky’s presence in Finland on a visit was because he knew of the alleged attack in advance and to ensure “there wouldn’t be an immediate retaliatory strike.”
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“He is so scared, he is such a pathetic coward that he decided to stay there longer,” said Solovyov, who referred to media speculation that he was due to also visit Germany where “he thinks we won’t whack him.” The host also made a threat of a missile strike on Germany, which he regularly does. On Thursday, the Ukrainian leader will speak at The Hague as part of a visit to the Netherlands.
Solovyov continued to disparage Zelensky, accusing him of being afraid to return to Ukraine, and calling him a “cowardly, nasty lying beast.” Mimicking Zelensky’s press conference denial of Ukrainian involvement in the purported Kremlin attack, Solovyov said “Why are you lying beast?
“Your scoundrels have already confirmed it was you,” he said, “That’s it Zelensky, be afraid everywhere, the countdown has started.”
Questions remain over Moscow’s claims which were made 12 hours after the purported incident, video of which has not been verified.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Wednesday that the drone strike had likely been internally conducted and staged by Russia “to bring the war home to a Russian domestic audience and set conditions for a wider societal mobilization.”
The think tank said it was “extremely unlikely” that the unmanned aerial vehicles could have penetrated multiple layers of air defense and detonated, and the embarrassment of such a security failure was outweighed by its intended political effects.
David Silbey, associate professor of history at Cornell University, said that the purported strike “could be a Russian false flag operation designed to be used as an excuse to justify some kind of escalation.
“They’ve already tried assassinating Zelensky. The same logic of deterrence with nuclear weapons still applies,” he said in emailed comments to Newsweek.
“Mass strategic bombing of Ukrainian cities are potentially more plausible. The missile strikes so far have been nasty but not at the level of a sustained bombing campaign,” he added.
Last week, Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, had hinted at a possible attempt to strike at the heart of Moscow around Victory Day—Russia’s annual commemoration on May 9 of the defeat of the Nazis in World War II. Sharing a bird’s-eye video of Red Square as drones were found around the Russian capital, he tweeted that the Kremlin “has every chance to be in the affected area very soon.”
