Volodymyr Zelensky praised for ‘self-control’ during Lex Fridman podcast as interviewer slammed

Podcaster Lex Fridman, who has interviewed the likes of Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk and Benjamin Netanyahu, has now released his three-hour interview with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, with social media users calling out the MIT researcher for some of the questions he asked.

Fridman tweeted Zelensky requesting an interview on 29 November, with the politician confirming the next day he would be willing to sit down for a conversation.

Fridman shared a picture of him in Kyiv on 26 December, before sharing a picture of him with Zelensky on 4 January, in which he said the podcast episode “should be out Monday” – it actually came out on Sunday evening.

At one point in the interview, Fridman tells Zelensky: “If you think that the president of a country is completely crazy, it is really hard to come to an agreement with him. You have to look at him as a serious person who loves his country and loves the people in his country, and he conducts, yes, destructive military actions…”

An incredulous Zelensky interrupted and asked: “Who are you talking about now? Who loves his country?”

“Putin,” Fridman clarified. “Do you think he doesn’t love his country?”

Zelensky laughed and replied: “No. What is his country? He happened to consider Ukraine his country. What is his country? Explain it.

“Tomorrow, he will say that it’s America. No pity for the Chechens?

“Who are the Chechens? A different people, another faith, other people… A million, eliminated.

“And eliminated how? How did he kill them? With love? I know, f***, by hugging. In Ukrainian, as we say, strangling by hugging. ‘I love you so so much. I love you so much, I want to kill you.’

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“That’s his love, and that’s not love. You’re mistaken. He does not love his people; he loves his inner circle – it’s only a small part of the people. He doesn’t love them.”

Zelensky went on to add that a leader “cannot send your people to another land to die, knowing that they will die”, yet 788,000 Russians have been killed or wounded since the war in Ukraine began.

The three-hour interview also saw Zelensky clap back at ideas of a compromise and forgiveness, with the president telling Fridman: “To forgive? No one will forgive. This is absolutely impossible to forgive him.

“You cannot get into the head and soul of a person who lost their family. Nobody never will accept this – absolutely impossible.

“[Children are] the most important thing in life and they simply took away the most precious things from you. Will you ask who ruined your life before going to rip their head off?

“They took your child away. Are you going to ask, ‘who did this?’ And they will answer, ‘that dude did this’. You will say, ‘oh, well, then there are no questions’. No. No you will go ‘f***ng hell’ and bite their head off, and it will be fair.”

Crikey.

Commenting on the interview, social media users have expressed frustration at Fridman’s questioning:

So much so, that others praised Zelensky for his “self-control”:

Elsewhere, others questioned the translation of one of the Ukrainian president’s answers:

The full three-hour interview was conducted in a mix of English, Ukrainian and Russian, with both dubbing and subtitles available in all three languages.

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