I'd shoot Putin with my Kalashnikov if given the chance, Ukrainian MP tells LBC

28 May 2022, 13:11 | Updated: 28 May 2022, 13:24

Ukrainian MP says she'd shoot Putin if given the opportunity

This was the moment Ukrainian MP Kira Rudik told Matt Frei that if Vladimir Putin was sitting in front of her she would shoot and kill him.

In February, Ms Rudik tweeted that she was learning to use a Kalashnikov and preparing "to bear arms" for Ukraine.

Her comments come as Moscow-backed separatists have pounded eastern Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region, as Ukrainian officials pleaded for sophisticated Western weapons to stop the onslaught.

The advance of Russian forces has raised fears that cities in the region will undergo the same horrors inflicted on the people of the port city Mariupol in the weeks before it fell.

Matt Frei asked the leader of the Golos Zmin party, Ms Rudik: "Is there a solution to this war that still sees Vladimir Putin in power, or do you feel vulnerable, do you feel at war as long as that man is President of Russia?"

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Ms Rudik replied: "I wouldn't even be talking about Putin as a person, I would be talking about collective Putin.

"But, I think while the regime is on, and there is no viable idea in the world of how to push him back, I don't think the war would be able to end."

Matt asked Ms Rudik what she would say to Putin if he was sitting in his seat.

"Nothing, you have to shoot when you see him", she said.

"Kill him?", Matt asked.

"Of course," she replied.

"That's what you're supposed to do."

Matt clarified: "Just to be clear, if you had the gun we've all seen you with, if that was in your lap right now and he was sitting where I'm sitting?"

"My move would be to shoot... I trained for two months, I think I would be good", she said.

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