The war in Ukraine completes this Sunday (24) five months. A conflict that seems far from over, and which has been a test of resistance for Ukrainian President Vo-lodymyr Zelensky, the former comedian turned target of the second largest military power on the planet. He spoke exclusively with correspondent Raquel Krähen-bühl, in her first interview for Latin America.
Interview translated from English to Portuguese
*** 'We don't have far-right groups in the east', says Volodymyr Zelensky in an exclusive interview TV show Fantástic Globo Brazil
Raquel Krähenbühl: Do you regret anything about the war, having insisted on being part of NATO, or having supported far-right groups in the Donbass region?
Volodymyr Zelensky: I'm not sure what you mean by far-right groups in the east of the country. I don't understand what you're talking about. We don't have far-right groups in the east. I don't know who these groups are. We have the Armed Forces of Ukraine. That's the name: Armed Forces of Ukraine in the East. This information that you are saying is the information that the Russian Federation is spreading about some nationalist groups. Simply, they are radical towards the Russian military who came to kill them. In these cases, anyone should have a radical reaction, but I don't recognize them as far-right groups. I have never supported any radical group. “Look, you can't deny that there are far-right groups in Ukraine. The mistake that is often made is to imagine that they have a great representation. When will we see the number of votes that this far-right group has in Ukraine is very small. However, they are armed, well-trained, motivated groups that pose a threat to the government. So the government wants to make sure these groups are on its side. And they are deeply anti-Russian,” says Tanguy Baghdadi, professor of international relations.