Kiev, 4 December 2023 (dpa/MIA) – Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko has launched an attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an interview with Switzerland's 20 Minuten news outlet that received wide coverage in Russia and Ukraine on Sunday.

"People are asking why we were not better prepared for this war, why Zelensky denied up to the end that it would come to this," Klitschko said in the interview broadcast on Saturday.

"There was too much information that did not correspond with reality," the 52-year-old former world boxing champion said, accusing the president of "mistakes."

He called for honesty regarding Ukraine's true situation following the Russian invasion. "Zelensky is paying for the mistakes that he has made," Klitschko said.

"Of course we can lie euphorically to our people and our partners, but you can't do that forever," he said, while offering clear backing to the Ukrainian chief of staff, General Valery Zaluzhny, who provoked criticism a month ago when he said that the war had reached a stalemate.

"He told the truth," Klitschko said in the interview. "Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth, but in the end he is responsible. He has explained and justified what the current situation is."

Klitschko spoke out against political game playing in Ukraine. There should be no internal conflict in a country fighting for its existence, and for that reason he was refusing to discuss his own personal plans and was expressing support for Zelensky, he said.

"The president has an important function today, and we have to support him up to the end of the war. But when the war is over, each politician will have to account for his successes and mistakes," Klitschko said.

In the interview, Klitschko thanked Germany for providing anti-aircraft systems but was critical of the refusal to provide long-range Taurus cruise missiles.

Photo: MIA archive