Zelensky Brutally Shuts Down Tucker Carlson Interview Talk

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has shut down speculation that he is set to be interviewed by conservative pundit Tucker Carlson.

"Mr. Tucker Carlson should check his FSB sources more carefully. The president of Ukraine has a completely different schedule, and Tucker Carlson is not on it," presidential spokesperson Sergii Nykyforov said in a statement on Thursday, referring to Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).

The Context

The denial comes hours after Carlson, a former Fox News host, said it "looks like we've got the Zelensky interview."

"We've been trying for two years, and with particular intensity after interviewing [President Vladimir] Putin in February," he said on X, formerly Twitter.

What We Know

Carlson claimed that his team had been trying to interview the Ukrainian leader since 2022.

In February, he traveled to Moscow to interview Putin about the war in Ukraine, becoming the first Western journalist to do so since the conflict began in February 2022.

At the time, Carlson said that he was interviewing the Russian leader "because it's our job. We're in journalism. Our duty is to inform people."

He said he aimed to "bring Americans much-needed information about the conflict that's completely reshaping their country's position in the world."

Carlson did not provide a timeline on when to expect an interview with the Ukrainian leader, but wrote: "Coming soon we hope."

Carlson was the host of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight from 2016 to 2023 before he was left the network last April, with no official explanation given by his former employer.

Before his departure, he had been criticized by liberals on several issues, including his criticism of Zelensky and his stance on the war in Ukraine, which had earned him praise among Kremlin propagandists.

Newsweek has contacted Ukraine's Foreign Ministry and the Tucker Carlson Network for comment via email.

Views

Ukrainian social media users reacted negatively to Nykyforov's statement on Facebook.

"This seems like a big mistake to me, sorry," one person said.

"You're not serious, are you? What a shame. There are simply no words," another wrote.

"Like it or not, Carlson is one of the top influential journalists in the U.S., with an audience of millions. It would be a chance to talk to another part of American society, whose support we lack."

One Facebook user said "it is strange to hear such rhetoric from the press secretary" of Zelensky.

"Whatever the intention of 'propagandist Tucker' and his 'curators,' no matter where they sit, it is in Zelensky's power to give comprehensive and truthful answers to the most insidious questions," they added.

Before the denial was issued, Ukrainian journalist Illia Ponomarenko said on X that he believed Zelensky sitting down for an interview with Tucker "is a good idea" because "there is no question Ukraine can't give a fair answer to.

"And unlike Putin, a Ukrainian wartime leader has no need to crack freakishly weird mumbo-jumbo, pseudo-historical, freak Viking-era theories to explain why Ukraine fights for survival in the largest European war of aggression since Hitler and why it is so important to help Ukraine win," Ponomarenko wrote.

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