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Zelensky called Russians, Ukrainians single people in 2014 — Ukrainian media

Now his position is opposite, Strana.UA noted

KIEV, July 1. /TASS/. The current president of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky called Russians and Ukrainians a single people prior to his election in 2014, but now his position is opposite, Strana.UA noted Thursday.

According to the news website, Zelensky’s view on the unity of the two peoples changed drastically in the last seven years. The website quoted Zelensky’s 2014 interview to local media he gave during his tour in Donetsk.

"We cannot be against the Russian people at all, because we are a single people. […] How can we not love it? We are not idiots, after all. We read the same books. But we do not shy away from speaking our mind about the government of the Russian Federation. As well as about our own government," Zelensky said at the time. 

On Wednesday, June 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during the Direct Line that Ukraine is not included in the list of unfriendly states and that he does not consider the Ukrainian people unfriendly. The President underscored that Russian and Ukrainian peoples "are a single entity," but "the current leadership of today’s Ukraine is certainly unfriendly."

On Thursday, Zelensky said in his Twitter, that "Ukrainians and Russians are not a single people," adding that each of them have their own way.