'Terrorists, gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis': Putin urges Ukrainian army to overthrow leadership in Kyiv

Moscow, Feb 25: Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the Ukrainian army on Friday to replace the country's government, whom he branded as "terrorists" and "a gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis" in a televised address.

In a televised address to the Ukrainian military, he encouraged them to "take power in your own hands," news agency AFP reported.

"It seems like it will be easier for us to agree with you than this gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis," he said, referring to leadership in Kyiv led by President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish.

President Putin signed treaties with leaders of DPR and LPR on February 21, recognising the two regions of Ukraine as independent.

"We are ready to hold talks at any moment, once the Ukrainian Armed Forces respond to our president's call, end their resistance and lay down their arms. No one plans to attack and oppress them, let them return to their families, and let us give the Ukrainian people a chance to decide their future," Lavrov was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency.

According to reports, the Kremlin on Friday said that President Putin is ready to send a delegation to Belarus for talks with Ukrainian officials. The development comes after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he is willing to discuss a non-aligned status for Ukraine.

President Putin on Thursday launched a multi-pronged all-out attack on Ukraine, casting aside international condemnation and sanctions and warned other countries that any attempt to interfere would lead to "consequences they had never seen".

President Putin announced in a televised address on Thursday morning that in response to a request by the head of the Donbas republic, he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years." Putin said the Russian military operation aims to ensure a "demilitarisation" of Ukraine. Putin also urged Ukrainian servicemen to "immediately put down arms and go home."

The US and its allies have decided to block assets of four large Russian banks, impose export controls and sanction oligarchs close to Putin after he ordered a "special military operation" against Ukraine on Thursday.

Lavrov said that Russia had always called for negotiations and claimed that Russia had no plans to "occupy" Ukraine. "No one is going to occupy Ukraine. The aim of the operation has been openly declared: demilitarising and denazifying," Russia's top diplomat emphasised. Russia sees no possibility of recognising the Ukrainian government as democratic given that it "is oppressing and using methods of genocide against its own people," Lavrov alleged.