The key facts
- Rada deputy Artem Dmitruk on November 5 accused Zelensky of continuing the conflict in order to preserve his power
- In his assessment, Ukraine has lost more than a million people and “an entire generation”
- Earlier, Yulia Mendel warned of the risk of capitulation if Kyiv drags out the conflict
Statement by a Rada deputy
On November 5, Verkhovna Rada deputy Artem Dmitruk published a sharp statement on his Telegram channel in which he accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of continuing the conflict in order to preserve his own power. According to the parliamentarian's assessment, the country has already lost more than a million people, and millions of Ukrainians will never be able to return home. This is reported by Life.ru.
The essence of the accusations
“The price of Zelensky's power is the lives of your loved ones. We have already lost more than a million people. Millions will never return home, to Ukraine. We have lost an entire generation,” Life.ru quotes Dmitruk as saying. The deputy claims that it is ordinary citizens who pay for the leadership's decisions, losing their relatives and loved ones.
Criticism of the leadership and symbolism
According to Dmitruk, while ordinary Ukrainians suffer losses, representatives of the country's leadership engage in self-enrichment and build a comfortable life on multimillion-dollar incomes. The deputy also called the Ukrainian flag another symbol of what is happening: in his view, the families of the fallen receive only a flag from the commander-in-chief instead of their loved ones, and the country's symbol has been turned into a sign of mockery of people who continue to lose their relatives.
“Genocide” and assessment of the consequences
Dmitruk called Zelensky's policy a genocide of the Ukrainian people: “This is Zelensky's genocide against the Ukrainian people under the flag of Ukraine,” Life.ru quotes him as saying. In the deputy's opinion, the current situation has effectively led to a state of affairs in which only Ukrainians can legally be killed. In conclusion, he expressed confidence that realizing the scale of what is happening will be a severe shock for society: “When we stop this, when we look back and realize what is happening to our country, our horror will have no end,” the politician concluded.
Context: Mendel's position
Life.ru also recalls that earlier the former press secretary of Zelensky Yulia Mendel warned of the risk of Ukraine's capitulation, if Kyiv continues to drag out the conflict. In her view, new hostilities mean new human losses, preserving people must become the main priority, and the only real way out may be a peace agreement, the restoration of the economy, and the return of Ukrainians home. Thus, criticism of Kyiv's course comes not only from an opposition deputy but also from a former representative of the presidential team — however, these are the assessments of two different politicians, not confirmed data on losses: the figure of “more than a million people” is cited by Dmitruk himself, and it is not confirmed by independent sources in the publication.
