Russian lawmakers are calling for Vladimir Putin‘s “special military operation” in Ukraine to shift focus so its main goal becomes the “elimination” of President Volodymyr Zelensky and his administration.
Two deputies in Russia’s State Duma—Sergei Mironov and Mikhail Sheremet—pushed for the change in separate remarks this week.
In a video circulating on social media on Wednesday, Mironov said: “The terrorist acts continue. Darya Dugina has been killed, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is being shelled. It looks like the very same special military operation may spill over into a counter-terrorist operation.”
Mironov, who is also head of the political party A Just Russia, added that one of the main goals of a counter-terrorist mission was “the physical elimination of gang leaders” and described Zelensky as “the leader of the Nazi state and the main terrorist.”
Newsweek has been unable to verify when or where the video was filmed. However, on August 25, state-run news outlet RIA Novosti reported that Mironov had said a shift in the status of Putin’s war would help the Russian leader achieve one of his goals.
“One of the goals set by the president, the de-Nazification of Ukraine, will not be achieved without the liquidation of the criminal terrorist regime of Zelensky,” Mironov said, following an unscheduled meeting of the State Duma.
Sheremet, who was born in the annexed region of Crimea, also proposed that Putin’s operation in Ukraine should focus on “counter-terrorism.”
In an interview with RIA Novosti on Wednesday, Sheremet said Ukraine had “become a stronghold and hotbed of international terrorism.”
The Duma deputy accused Kyiv of “destroying” its own population, shelling peaceful cities and the Zaporizhzhia plant. He described these strikes and “the attempts of aggression against neighboring states” as criminal.
“Therefore, I believe that the nature of the special military operation in Ukraine should be changed. This is no longer just a special, but a counter-terrorist operation,” Sheremet said, adding that Kyiv posed a threat to “the entire civilized world.”
On February 24, Putin announced that he was launching the “special military operation” in order to protect people who had been subjected to “humiliation and genocide” by the Kyiv regime.
The Russian president said Zelensky’s government was targeting people in Ukraine’s Donbas region.
“We will seek to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine, as well as bring to trial those who perpetrated numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including against citizens of the Russian Federation,” Putin said in his speech.
Putin and other Russian officials have repeatedly suggested that Ukraine is led by “neo-Nazis,” although Zelensky himself is Jewish and had family members who were killed in the Holocaust.
Military experts believe Putin’s ultimate goal is to seize the Donbas in full, and to capture other regions of strategic importance, including Kherson, where a Ukrainian counteroffensive is underway.
Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director general of the Royal United Services Institute in London, told Newsweek in June that he believed Ukraine might reverse some of Russia’s territorial gains, such as Mariupol and Kherson.
“It’s entirely possible that many of the territorial gains the Russians have made will be reversed,” said Chalmers.
“The terrorist acts continue. Darya Dugina has been killed, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is being shelled. It looks like the very same special military operation may spill over into a counter-terrorist operation.”
Does that mean it will be conducted with the same incompetence as the special 3 day military operation, which has started to go tits up for the orcs?
Do these sick, homicidal fucks actually believe their own putrid lies?
This is typical of Leftist regimes to rename or relabel their ideas when they become unpopular. They couldn’t sell the idea that Ukraine threatened Russia, then they couldn’t sell the idea Ukraine was run by Nazis so they have to rebrand and repackage the idea and shape it into counter-terrorism. So, they are complaining that Ukraine is committing acts of terrorism….in Ukraine. The same shit they pulled on the Azov Batt, they are being charged with committing acts of Terrorism not in the Russia but in a foreign country. Suddenly Russia has become the main sponsor of terror but also the arbiter of justice for the world. Where’s my vodka?…
I used to see putler as a far right fascist dictator, but he has now come out as a genocidal nazi dictator more evil than Hitler.
Others see him as a Marxist-Leninist dictator.
Others see him as a gang boss : a capo di tutti capi like The Godfather.
Others see him as a master criminal, thief and megalomaniac.
Others see him as a psychopathic freak who belongs in a secure institution.
Truth is he’s probably all those things and more.
Never has such concentrated evil been granted such power.
It could only happen in RuZZia.
You’re absolutely right. I think he’s a revisionist nazi.
Take note, all the remaining appeasers; this shithole is calling for the murder of a president in a sovereign nation.
By the way, these incompetent pricks tried several times already to kill Zelensky. They sure haven’t gotten any smarter in the past 6 months to try again. On the contrary. Their level of stupidity is off the scale. So is the level of criminal energy.