Russia threatens Zelensky with death like Epstein for making Putin 'look a failure'

Vladimir Putin's henchmen threatened Zelensky as Russia continues to suffer painful daily long-range hits from Ukrainian missiles and drones - plus a failure to make new territorial gains

Russia is threatening Volodymyr Zelensky with death by hanging in a squalid jail cell like paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Vladimir Putin's twisted henchmen have lashed out amid new signs of the Kremlin's dictator's fury at being made to look a failure by the Ukrainian leader. It comes as Russia continues to suffer painful daily long-range hits from Ukrainian missiles and drones, plus a failure to make new territorial gains.

On Tuesday alone, Putin suffered record losses for this year of 1,700 in a 24 hour period, Ukraine's general staff said.

"I consider [Volodymyr Zelensky] a criminal," declared Putin's illegal appointee as an MP in annexed Crimea, Mikhail Sheremet. "A war criminal who will sooner or later face the punishment he deserves. Everyone around him will end up [with a fate] similar to [Jeffrey]. Epstein's."

Col-Gen Andrei Kartapolov, Russian parliamentary defence committee chairman, agreed that the Ukrainian leader should face trial. "We need Zelensky alive so that he can be brought to justice for all his crimes against his own people, first and foremost, and against the people of Russia," he demanded.

Branding him a "crooked little thief" and an "illegitimate" president, he claimed Zelensky would be forced to sign a surrender document on Russian terms for peace. "We need someone who is capable of organising the signing of these very peace agreements once we reach them."

He also threatened strikes any country which supplies Ukraine with components for a nuclear bomb, claiming with no evidence that Moscow had thwarted such an effort, involving Britain. "This…is a direct threat to our country," he claimed.

"We would be obliged to strike at the country that has taken such a reckless step. [An] escapade [to supply nuclear weapons] was nipped in the bud."

Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz are among the western leaders who would soon be "consigned to the dustbin of history" and replaced by those ready to kowtow to Putin, he added.

Abusive Putin mouthpiece and ex-president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, said of Zelensky: "The stinky dog seriously hopes to hold elections in the dying country, rise from the ashes, and regain his legitimate status." This was Zelensky's "only chance to stay alive", he claimed.

He said "signing a surrender act" should be done by a Ukrainian military figure, not Zelensky. "Why am I writing about this now? To dispel the illusions of everyone who associates the possibility of conflict resolution with this creature."

After four years of war, former comedian Zelensky continues to thwart ex-KGB spy Putin. In latest strikes damaging the Russian war machine, Ukraine exploded a blast furnace and workshop in a major attack on Alchevsk Metallurgical Combine, in Luhansk region.

In a cynical attack, Russia hit third world grain exporting ships as they were loaded in Ukraine's Odesa region. The civilian vessels were flagged in Barbados and Palau. The port of Chornomorsk came under sustained drone fire overnight.