For the first time on NTV, an assessment of Volodymyr Zelensky diverged from past talking points. Russian commentators acknowledged they had “underestimated” the Ukrainian president.
On Russia’s NTV, an inconvenient truth for the Kremlin surfaced: studio commentators conceded that Ukraine’s president is not a “weakling,” not a “clown,” and not a “Western puppet - labels Kremlin-aligned media have pressed on Russians for the past four years.
They now call him a determined and dangerous opponent whom they had “underestimated.” According to them, Ukrainians and Zelensky are not yielding to pressure and continue to firmly defend Kyiv’s position. Moreover, neither the United States nor Russia has managed to force him to yield over the past year.
“Ukraine is far more independent than we would like, than we had thought. It makes absolutely no difference what surname is borne by the person holding the office of president of Ukraine. Absolutely no difference.”
“And that is the dead end, the horror of the current situation. Zelensky is undoubtedly an independent figure, and he is indeed an obstacle to concluding a peace agreement. Europe has structured the situation around Zelensky so that neither Europe nor the United States can remove him by force, make him leave, or make him submit.”
“So, about Zelensky. I’ve been saying this in this studio for a long time, when they say we overestimate him. We have constantly underestimated him, portraying him as a clown, a jester—anything.”
“We would like the enemy to be a caricature. But our enemy is serious.”
It is particularly telling that these assessments are coming from the very same media that previously and systematically belittled Zelensky, calling him a “clown” and pushing the insulting label of “drug addict.”
