Zelensky says Putin ‘doesn’t have much time left’ as Kremlin head is still MIA

The 73-year-old Russian leader has not been seen in person for more than a week. His last public appearance was recorded on February 5. Although Russian state media has broadcast footage of the leaders’ meeting in recent days, it is widely believed that these are pre-recorded segments used to mask his absence.

It remains unclear whether Putin’s apparent absence is due to health problems or other reasons, but Zelensky told Politico at the Munich Security Conference: “I am younger than Putin…”

As the audience laughed, the 48-year-old Ukrainian leader said: “No, no, believe me, this is important. He doesn’t have too much time, you know. Not too much time. He doesn’t have, God bless, too much time.”

The Ukrainian leader further criticized his rival as a “slave to war,” drawing comparisons between the current invasion and the 1938 Munich Agreement. The comments follow a period of relative silence within the Kremlin, which has previously built a reputation for allowing Putin to disappear for secret medical treatments.

Evidence of the leader’s potential physical decline recently emerged during a meeting with a Russian health care chairman. Footage showed Putin’s right hand visibly bulging veins and thin skin, while the leader appeared to nervously clench his fingers under his sleeve.

The mystery surrounding the Kremlin coincides with a bombastic report from a group of European leaders on the death of dissident Alexei Navalny. Foreign ministries from Britain, France and Germany said samples taken from Navalny “conclusively confirmed” the presence of epibatidine – a neurotoxin found in the skin of South American dart frogs.

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper called Putin a “murderer” who must be held to account, saying the Russian state has shown “despicable tools” to silence political opposition.

Despite the pressure and continued attacks on Ukraine’s energy network, Zelensky remains defiant. “He may see himself as a tsar,” he told the conference, “but in reality he is a slave to war.”

It came as Donald Trump called on Zelensky to make concessions to Putin, stressing that Russia is pursuing a peace deal as the large-scale invasion of Ukraine approaches its fifth year. The US president told reporters at the White House on Friday: “Russia wants to make a deal and Zelensky will have to act.”

Trump continued: “Otherwise he will miss a great opportunity. He will have to move.”

Russia is still demanding that Ukraine cede territory in the Donbas that Putin’s forces failed to capture during the war – a condition Kiev is refusing to accept ahead of new peace talks in Geneva next week. Zelensky hit back at the suggestion, saying that unlike Russia, Ukraine has already made concessions – the biggest being that Putin is not in prison for war crimes. “We made a lot of compromises,” he told Politico. “Putin and his friends are not in jail. This is the biggest compromise the world has already made.”

The Kremlin has reappointed hardline aide Vladimir Medinsky as the chief negotiator for the Geneva talks, replacing Admiral Igor Kostyukov, head of the GRU’s military intelligence. The US also urged China to intervene, claiming that all it would take was a phone call to end the conflict. “China could call Vladimir Putin and end this war tomorrow,” said US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker.

Meanwhile, Russian forces launched a nighttime attack on Ukraine on Saturday. The body of a 76-year-old woman was found under the rubble of a building in Odessa.

“Overnight, the enemy again attacked the region with drones. In Odesa, a UAV hit damaged the roof of a one-story residential building. Firefighters quickly extinguished the fire. Unfortunately, a woman was killed in the attack,” Odesa regional military chief Oleh Kiper said.

A barrage in the Zaporizhia region also killed at least one person and injured three others in the past 24 hours, according to regional military chief Ivan Fedorov.