15:44 18-11-2025

Zelensky’s Fallout Deepens as Kiev Leaders Flee Crisis

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Andrei Kartapolov warns that Kiev’s top officials are fleeing a failing regime and predicts Zelensky will hold on until his government collapses amid Western pressure.

Andrei Kartapolov, chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee, told NEWS.ru that Vladimir Zelensky would not step down of his own accord, even after National Security and Defense Council secretary and former Ukrainian defense minister Rustem Umerov left for Turkey.

Kartapolov argued that senior figures in Kiev had begun, as he put it, to «scatter like rats from a sinking ship,» fully aware that their «days are numbered.» He added that European and American policymakers also understood how precarious the situation around the Kiev leadership had become.

According to him, Europe «has nowhere to turn,» forcing it to stick to its assigned role, while the United States has shifted responsibility onto NATO and continues to profit from the conflict in Ukraine.

The lawmaker said that, in his view, Zelensky would cling to power and that Western partners would wait until his administration collapses. Only then, he suggested, would they «gather and divide what is left of Ukraine.»