A week after Volodymyr Zelenskiy won Ukraine’s presidential election in April, Russian leader Vladimir Putin threw down the gauntlet to the erstwhile comedian. And part of that mission will be to give protection, refuge and Ukrainian citizenship to all those who fight for freedom,” he wrote on Facebook. “We will give Ukrainian citizenship to people of all nations who suffer under authoritarian and corrupt regimes. “But we already see things getting better under President Zelenskiy,” Mamulashvili says. “By getting Ukrainian citizenship I’m expressing an important political position against this war and everything Putin has done to put blood between our nations,” he said.

Source: The Irish Times July 16, 2019 15:00 UTC