“Putin is absolute evil who is afraid of any competition,” Andriy Ermak, head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration, said on X. He added: “The lives of Russians mean nothing to him. Anyone who calls for negotiations must realize that he cannot be trusted. The only language he understands is force.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to the president, issued a similar statement. “Stop thinking that you can make some kind of pact with death itself or with a bloody dictator,” Podolyak wrote.
He added that Putin and his supporters are not interested in “treaties, guarantees, or stability.” “But they are quite interested in mass murder and murder. Everywhere. Within their own countries and especially in other countries.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba reminded his followers on Channel X of the “long list” of Putin’s critics and opponents who, like Navalny, died in violent or unclear circumstances: journalist Anna Politkovskaya; former KGB agent and defector Alexander Litvinenko; Sergei Magnitsky, who was killed in prison after the discovery of a massive fraud by Russian tax officials; And Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.
“There was outrage after each murder, but Putin eventually got away with it, and world leaders shook hands with him again,” Kuleba wrote. “This encouraged him to continue killing people.”
Kuleba said Navalny's death was a rebuke to those who insist that Putin can be trusted and that Ukraine must sit down and reach a negotiated end to the conflict with Russia.
Today, some voices continue to demand to listen to Putin and negotiate with him. “It is time to end the naivety.” He added: “Before we begin any meaningful engagement with Moscow, Russia must be defeated in Ukraine, and Putin must learn one last lesson.”
After Russia invaded and illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, Navalny criticized how the situation was handled but tried to avoid clashing with the vast majority of Russians who supported the annexation, according to opinion polls. Navalny urged people to accept that Crimea is and will remain Russian, and famously asked whether Crimea was a bologna sandwich being passed back and forth.
Navalny later spoke out strongly against Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He called for the immediate withdrawal of Russian forces, the restoration of Ukraine's territorial sovereignty, and the payment of reparations to Ukraine using proceeds from oil and gas revenues.
However, some Ukrainians responded to Navalny's death by posting photos on social media showing a sandwich being thrown in the garbage.
Yevhen Klopotenko, the famous Ukrainian chef who helped the war effort, tweeted a photo of two pieces of bread, one of which was moldy, and an arrow pointing to a trash can.
Zelensky used Navalny's death to criticize Putin's regime. “It is clear that he was killed by Putin, like thousands of others who were tortured — tortured because of this man,” Zelensky said at a news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday, in his first comments after learning of Navalny’s death.
“Putin does not care who dies, as long as he keeps his position,” Zelensky said. “Therefore, he should not keep anything. He should be defeated, lose everything, and be held accountable for what he did.”
