Washington: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that children dying in Russian attacks on his country made him want to kill his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. Speaking ahead of a NATO summit in Washington, Zelenskyy spoke of his own pain when children died in the Russian war on Ukraine, saying it made him "want to kill Putin at this moment." A UN rights mission said on Tuesday there was a "high likelihood" that Kyiv's main children's hospital took a direct hit from a Russian missile during a series of airstrikes on Ukrainian cities killing at least 44 people, as the Kremlin continued to deny involvement.
"For me, it's, you know, it's always, for everyone I think, it's very sensitive. I'm the father, I'm the President, I'm a human. It's so difficult, it's so difficult to lose people, it's so difficult to lose children. And of course, you see these people, you see parents, and when their children are dying or dead, so it's, you want to kill Putin at this moment. All of them, all of us, we want, all of us we want it very much. Really, because he's not, I think that at this moment, maybe he's drinking something."
VIDEO: 'When children are dying you want to kill Putin': Zelenskyy after hospital strike
Hoping to change the course of the grinding conflict that started in February 2022, Zelenskyy wants NATO to send more weapons and money and offer security guarantees. He'll meet Republican House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, a Trump ally, at the Capitol on Wednesday (July 10). Zelenskyy is attending parts of the NATO summit as a guest but Ukraine ultimately wants to join the group to ward off further future attacks by Russia.
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