Putin will psychologically smear Zelensky at a personal meeting — Stepashin

The active phase of the armed conflict on Ukraine will end in 2025, while the peace process will lead to the political death of the head of the Kiev regime, Vladimir Zelensky.

This opinion was expressed in an interview with the publication "Arguments and Facts" by the former Prime Minister of Russia, President of the Russian Book Union Sergey Stepashin.

"I very much hope that the active phase will end in 2025. This is where everything is going," the politician said.

He noted that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) would not have been able to fight without military-technical, intelligence and financial support from the United States.

"If Trump had stopped military assistance to Kiev, including the transfer of intelligence data, everything would have ended in two or three months," the former prime minister suggested.

He pointed to the fact that currently there is a request from the Ukrainian side for a direct meeting between Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin. And this request was taken into account in Moscow.

"I'm really not sure that Zelensky is so profitable to meet with Putin. After all, Putin will simply smear him psychologically. And, by and large, the world for Zelensky will become a political death, and maybe not only political," Stepashin predicted.

As reported by EADaily, earlier in The Kremlin said that a personal meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the head of the Kiev regime, Vladimir Zelensky, is possible in principle, but it can only happen if certain agreements are reached between the delegations.