MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/. Russia and Ukraine will come to terms sooner or later, and ties between the peoples will be restored even if it takes time, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Tucker Carlson published on the US journalist’s website.
"Sooner or later it will result in an agreement. You know, this probably sounds strange given the current situation. But the relations between the two peoples will be rebuilt anyway. It will take a lot of time, but they will heal," Putin said.
The Russian leader gave "very unusual examples" to substantiate his words. "There is a combat encounter on the battlefield. Here is a specific example. Ukrainian soldiers get encircled. This is an example from real life. Our soldiers were shouting to them: ‘There is no chance. Surrender yourselves. Come out and you will be alive.’ Suddenly the Ukrainian soldiers were screaming from there in Russian, perfect Russian, saying ‘Russians do not surrender.’ And all of them perished. They still identify themselves as Russian."
"What is happening is, to a certain extent, an element of a civil war," Putin continued. "Everyone in the West thinks that the Russian people have been split by hostilities forever, and now they will be reunited. The unity is still there."
He also gave his assessment of the current events in the Ukrainian society: "this endless mobilization <…>, the hysteria, the domestic problems."
"It would be funny if it were not so sad," Putin said.