Russian elite's hope that they can survive alongside Putin must be destroyed - former State Duma deputy Ponomarev

He spoke about this on Espreso TV channel.

"I believe that we (Russians - ed.) need to help Ukraine, and not Ukraine needs to help us, because who has attacked whom," the former State Duma deputy emphasized.

Responding to the question of how to stop Russia's war in Ukraine, he said: "I believe that first of all, we need to understand one very simple thing - that the cause of this war is in Moscow and the only way to end this war is to destroy the Putin regime."

According to Ponomarev, the war will not end after the liberation of Ukrainian territory and the Ukrainian army's return to the 1991 borders. "It will end only when Putin and his regime are destroyed. We have a joint goal, and for this goal to be realized, it is necessary to destroy the Russian elites' hope they can survive with Putin, because they can only survive without Putin, and when they realize this, then the changes we all want will come," he concluded.

• Mark Feygin, a Russian opposition politician in Ukrainian exile, spoke about Putin's desire to bring the West to the negotiating table and Washington's position in an interview with Antin Borkovskyi, host of the Studio West program on Espreso TV channel.