Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated this at Madeleine K. Albright Democracy Awards ceremony.
"On February 23 of this year - the day before escalation of Russian war - Ms. Madeleine Albright (US Secretary of State in 1997-2001, - ed.) published column that Russian leader was making a historic mistake. These were prophetic words. He really made a mistake. The biggest in his life and in the lives of modern Russian generations," Zelenskyy said.
At the same time, he emphasized that Russia refuses to recognize the mistake of its dictator.
"Fixed idea of any dictatorship is to ignore mistakes and pretend that there were no mistakes. Especially when it comes to mistake of the first dictatorship person. This is exactly how Russia is behaving now.
Obviously, dictator lost. However, he is doing everything to ensure that Russia continues to fight, if only to avoid admitting to himself and others that a historical mistake was made," Zelenskyy said.
"If Russia feels cornered, it has only itself to blame," he added.