Zelensky calls Putin a ‘dumbass’ for challenging a missile ‘duel’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a tart response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual year-end news conference Thursday, hurling a rude epithet at the Kremlin leader in comments online.

During the press conference, Putin boasted about the capability of the Oreshnik, a new nuclear-capable ballistic missile that Russia recently fired at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. He also repeated an earlier threat to strike Ukraine again with the missile, suggesting that it be fired at Kyiv as a test of Western-supplied air defense equipment.

“Let them propose … some kind of technological experiment – a kind of high-tech duel of the 21st century, let’s say,” Putin said. “Let them determine some target to be hit, for example in Kyiv, they concentrate all their air and missile defense forces there, and we will strike there with the Oreshnik. And we’ll see what happens.”

He added: “We are ready for such an experiment. In any case, we don’t rule it out. We will conduct such an experiment, such a technological duel, and see what happens. It’s interesting.”

Zelensky posted an excerpt of those remarks on X, commenting in English: “People are dying, and he thinks it’s ‘interesting’… Dumbass.” He also posted a similar comment in Ukrainian.

Putin appeared to make similarly glib remarks about the war in Ukraine at the beginning of his comments Thursday, intimating that war was making life more interesting.

“You know, when everything is calm, measured, stable, you get bored. Stagnation. You need some action. As soon as the action starts, everything whizzes past your head: seconds, bullets. Unfortunately, bullets are whistling now.”

Putin’s marathon year-end news conference on Thursday consisted of a public Q&A session combined with a public phone-in. The event is staged annually by Putin as a way to show his sweeping control of all aspects of the country.

Russia’s war on Ukraine was a major topic, with Putin keen to emphasize Russia’s recent gains in grinding war of attrition. He also said while he had not spoken to US President-elect Donald Trump in over four years, he was “ready” for potential talks with him, amid expectation that the new administration in Washington will push for a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine.

“You asked what we can offer, or what I can offer to the newly elected President Trump when we meet,” Putin said in response to a question from NBC’s Keir Simmons. “First of all, I don’t know when we will meet. Because he hasn’t said anything about it. I haven’t spoken to him at all in over four years. Of course, I am ready for this at any time, and I will be ready for a meeting if he wants it.”

Asked whether Russia would be in a weaker negotiating position because of recent setbacks in Syria and on the battlefield in Ukraine, Putin replied, “You said that this conversation will take place in a situation when I am in some weakened state… And you, and those people who pay your salaries in the US, would very much like Russia to be in a weakened position.”