Scholz reveals Putin's claims on Ukraine hours before invasion

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz revealed what he heard from Vladimir Putin just a few hours before Russia attacked Ukraine. Scholz recounted how the Russian leader tried to convince him that Ukraine "belongs" to Russia.

Olaf Scholz, during a Sunday conversation with citizens at the Democracy Festival, shared what he heard from Putin right before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This occurred during a meeting at the Kremlin in February 2022 "at that long table that everyone remembers."

According to Scholz, Putin revealed his imperial ideas that borders "can be changed by force," regardless of the law. He also tried to prove "that Ukraine and Belarus are parts of Russia" and accused Ukraine of "heading towards NATO."

Putin told the German chancellor about the alleged "Nazi regime" in Ukraine. The chancellor disagreed with the statement that by helping Kyiv, Germany was "stirring up a war."

"We are giving Ukraine the opportunity to defend itself… Maximum support to prevent this imperialist attack on a neighboring state from succeeding… But at the same time, we are making sure that it does not come to a major war between Russia and NATO," Scholz reportedly said.

He added that the war is killing not only Ukrainians but also Russians, and "only for the sake of the fact that someday in history books that he (Putin) won’t even be able to read, in 100 years, it will be written that he conquered a couple of kilometers."

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov on Sunday informed that Russia has dropped nearly 10,000 guided bombs in Ukraine since the start of the year. They were also used in Saturday's attack on a hardware hypermarket in Kharkiv, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 40.

"This is a deliberate killing of the civilian population," wrote Umerov on Facebook, accusing Russian leader Vladimir Putin of "another act of genocide."

Russia typically uses laser- or satellite-guided KAB bombs weighing from 250 kg to 1,500 kg against Ukrainian military and civilian targets – the minister reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky once again called on Western allies on Sunday to provide more air defence systems due to the recent attack on Kharkiv.

– This would not have happened if Ukraine had received a sufficient number of air defense systems and if the world's determination to counter Russian terror had been sufficient – he argued and added that they appeal every day to the world: give us air defence, save people.