Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in a video posted on social media.
Carlson said he wanted to interview because “Americans have a right to know all they can about a war they are implicated in”.
Ukraine’s deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar said: “The only interview that is safe in this situation is the interrogation in The Hague.”
Tucker Carlson’s visit to Moscow has been reported in Russian state media, with near-constant coverage of his every move.
“There are risks to interviewing this, obviously, so we’ve thought about it over many months,” Carlson said in his announcement video.
Since the war in Ukraine began, he said, Western journalists had interviewed Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky – whom he has previously called a “dictator” – many times.
Tucker Carlson has been an outspoken defender of Mr Putin since the war began.
“Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him?” Carlson said as Russian troops started to mass on Ukraine’s border. “These are fair questions, and the answer to all of them is: No. Vladimir Putin didn’t do any of that.”
After Russia had invaded, he said Putin started the war. Then he promised to do an interview and upload the video live and unedited to his X account. Elon Musk promised not to alter it or take it down.
