Popular podcaster Lex Fridman spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for over three hours on the latest episode of his show, which dropped on Sunday. In the wide-ranging conversation, Fridman asked Zelensky about everything from how he views President-elect Donald Trump coming to power to the impact of World War II on modern-day Europe.

At one point during the conversation, Fridman pressed Zelensky on what a compromise in the war would look like in order to get the invading Russian forces to turn back.

“I understand. But unfortunately, the reality is that a compromise is needed in order to reach an agreement,” Fridman pressed Zelensky.

“Understanding the fact that he [Putin] is not in jail after all the murders, he is not in jail, assuming all the murders and no one in the world is able to put him in his place, send him to prison. Do you think this is a small compromise?” Zelensky shot back.

“This is not a small compromise. And to forgive him will not be a small compromise,” Fridman replied.

“To forgive? No one will forgive. This is absolutely impossible to forgive him. We cannot get into the head and soul of a person who lost their family. Nobody never will accept this. Absolutely impossible. I don’t know. Do you have children?” Zelensky responded.

“No, not yet. But I would like to,” Fridman replied.

“Yes. God bless. And this is the most important thing in life. And imagine they simply took away the most precious thing from you. Will you ask– Who ruined your life before going to rip their head off. I’m just curious. They took your child away,” Zelensky hit back, adding:

Are you going to ask who did this? And they will answer that dude did this. You will say, well, then there are no questions. No, no, no. You will go fucking hell and bite their head off and it will be fair.

Can murderers be forgiven? That’s why you make security guarantees. What I told you, for those who are here and what we control and what will not happen.

And that those who lost, we will never forget in a matter of time. But when you gave us NATO, I just said this means that after a while, everything I said about NATO. After a while, Ukraine will not go against Russia and Russia will not go against Ukraine because you are in NATO. I am just saying is not that a compromise? NATO is a compromise. This is not just a security guarantee, in my opinion. Look, when rockets were attacking Israel and Israel is not in NATO. NATO countries, aircrafts were deployed. The air defense worked, operated by different Middle Eastern countries.

Later in the conversation, Fridman revisited the topic of forgiveness and asked, “Will there ever be a day when the Ukrainian people forgive the Russian people and both peoples will travel back and forth again and marry each other, rekindle and form friendships? Will there be such a time in the future?”

“I think history has long answered this question. I don’t know how be for us. It’ll be in the future without a doubt. History has shown this time. And again after every devastating war, one generation, one country recognizes that it was an aggressor. And it comes to realize this is impossible to forgive. This is precisely the kind of education they’ve had in Germany for many years,” Zelensky replied, adding:

Even though these children had nothing to do with it. It was their grandfathers who participated and not all of them were participants of Nazi Germany’s war essentially against the world. Yes. And against life. And therefore they’re still apologizing.

Apologizing is not easy. They know that they were the aggressors, they were guilty. They do not look for compromise in history. Compromise in itself buys time. And they understand this. There are convicted murderers condemned both historically and by their own people. Reparations have been paid and security guarantees have been established by the way. And all this is done. And when all this is done and recognized, in any case, people develop relations with each other. That’s clear. But it can only happen the way it always has, always has in history. Russia will have to apologize. It will.

Read the full transcript here.

The post ‘Do You Have Children?’ Zelensky Schools Podcaster Lex Fridman For Suggesting Ukrainians Should ‘Forgive’ Putin first appeared on Mediaite.

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