Russian TV’s wild claim about President Volodymyr Zelensky

The Ukraine president has won plaudits around the world, but Russian TV is ramping up its propaganda against him.

Russia is portraying Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky as “under the influence of alcohol or hard drugs”.

The Ukrainian leader has won plaudits around the world for his leadership as the bombs fall, but Russian TV viewers are told an entirely different narrative.

The attacks indicate that Zelensky’s performance in rallying his people, and the West, is angering the Kremlin and eclipsing Vladimir Putin in getting his message across.

To state-funded Rossiya 1 channel, the Kyiv leader appeared in an “obscene state” and appeared “under the influence of alcohol or hard drugs” and “insane”.

TV anchorman Dmitry Kiselyov – aka Putin’s propagandist-in-chief, told viewers in an extended news show: “Ukraine’s Western allies tried their best to convey a simple idea to President Zelensky.

“No-one will send their troops to Ukraine, no-one will close the airspace over Ukraine, because this will lead to a direct clash between the armies of NATO and Russia.

“It is also better for Ukrainians to forget about joining NATO and the EU.

“Ukraine for the USA and Europe is expendable material, its historical mission is to sh*t on Russia and that’s all.

“By the end of the week, Zelensky finally began to understand something.

“He appeared in such an obscene state that everyone had only one question: Was the head of Ukraine under the influence alcohol or hard drugs?

“He looked so sluggish and insane.”

Stream the latest on the invasion of Ukraine from the world’s most trusted news sources with Flash. 25+ news channels in 1 place. New to Flash? Try 1 month free. Offer ends October 31, 2022 >

Russian TV anchorman Dmitry Kiselyov alleges Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is under the influence of alcohol or hard drugs.

He linked it to an incident when then Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili “attacked South Ossetia and then chewed his tie in fear of the cameras” as Russian tanks rolled in 2008.

Moscow TV has an alternative reality to that shown in the West concerning the Ukrainian conflict, which is never referred to as a “war” or an “invasion” but instead as Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” to bring “peace” and root out “Nazis”.

According to state channel Channel 1 “the service personnel of the Ukrainian army are laying down their weapons and saying that we are one people”.

This outlet and Rossiya 1 both claimed the Zelensky government was in its “death throes”, suggesting the President had fled Kyiv, ignoring evidence to the contrary.

Mr Zelensky has won plaudits around the world for his leadership as the bombs fall.

He was making “delusional demands” for NATO to establish no-fly zones, viewers were told.

There are also claims that the Russians only just got to Ukraine in time because Ukraine was “merely a few months away from having a nuclear explosive device”.

State TV reported claims that Ukraine had been involved in biowarfare research but ahead of the conflict there “all stockpiles and pathogens” were “urgently destroyed”.

State TV also insists that far from the Russians using the fire at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, this was the work of “Ukrainian nationalists” which Channel 1 said could have caused a “disaster on a planetary scale”.

Dmitry Kiselyov is Mr Putin’s propagandist-in-chief.

Refugees are flooding out of the country, said Moscow TV accounts, “because they do not want to be a human shield that protects a criminal regime in its death throes”.

The rush from the two largest cities Kyiv and Kharkiv was not linked to Russian bombing but “massive looting”.

One Ukrainian fleeing Kharkiv was filmed explaining that “everyone wants the Russians” to take over.

Kiselyov said that once Mr Putin has control of Ukraine, an urgent campaign of “deNazification” would start with show trials at which prominent people would be convicted and face the death penalty with no statute of limitations.

“The ideology of Ukrainian Nazism will be declared criminal and be outlawed,” he said.