Zelensky buries Minsk Agreements, draws Ukraine into NATO - Volodin

MOSCOW. Feb 25 (Interfax) - State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has named the mistakes made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"Zelensky has made many mistakes during his presidential term: he has put undesirable politicians in prison, has played into the hands of nationalists, and has shut down media outlets. Still, none of that would have led to such an ending. There were also fatal mistakes," Volodin said on Telegram on Friday.

The first mistake was that "a state such as Ukraine should have pursued its own, independent policy instead of bending to the will of the United States and Europe," he said.

"Zelensky forgot about the interests of his own citizens when he staked on Washington and Brussels. Instead of making his country an off-bloc, neutral state (like Austria, Switzerland and Finland), he actually drew it into NATO. The alliance started supplying huge quantities of weapons, while Ukraine was given the unfortunate role of a territory where a war would be waged and which would turn into ashes," Volodin said.

Another mistake of Zelensky's is that "he inherited the Donbas problem but could not make himself sit down for talks with the heads of the DPR and the LPR. What is this? Is it pride, lack of political experience or irresponsibility? Zelensky should have established dialogue. It was he who buried the Minsk Agreements," he said.

The third mistake and a problem for global security were "the threat of Zelensky to review Ukraine's renouncement of nuclear weapons. By making such statements, he posed himself as an irresponsible head of state," Volodin said.