Vladimir Putin has prompted fresh questions about his mental state after comparing his war against Ukraine to a bloody battle between orcas and polar bears.
The Russian leader, 73, made the bizarre analogy in a televised meeting with teachers ahead of the start of the upcoming school year in Russia, launching into an unprompted tirade about what he described as “the food chain” when an attendee mentioned taking a trip to the North Pole.
“And did you see polar bears?” Putin asked about the trip.
“Imagine, right nearby there are killer whales living and they eat these bears like they are minnows,” Putin said, describing a scenario that has never been recorded. “Yes, they just pounce, in a pack like that, and boom!- tear them to pieces.
“It’s all very interesting. A food chain like that. Children also need to be told about this so they understand what kind of world we live in, and why we are conducting the special military operation,” he said, using the Kremlin’s preferred term for the war against Ukraine.
Putin did not clarify if he considered Russia to be the orcas or the polar bears in the scenario he described, which wildlife experts have debunked as purely hypothetical.
There are no confirmed reports of orcas hunting polar bears, according to the BBC, though a flurry of bogus AI videos have claimed to capture a brewing battle between the two species.
Putin’s strange and unsolicited “lesson” on what appears to be a make-believe reality derived from AI slop comes as Western leaders are on edge over fears Moscow may be gearing up to take extreme measures in Ukraine, either by resorting to tactical nuclear weapons or launching a limited attack on a NATO country to warn against aiding Kyiv.
Ukraine’s government-run media platform United24 pointed to Putin’s polar bear tale as evidence of his “delusional” and “senile” take on reality, while many online observers questioned where the Russian leader was getting his information about the “laws of nature.”
Hours before Putin’s comments on Saturday, dozens of civilians were killed in fresh Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Kyiv region, including nearly two dozen in a home for the elderly and disabled, according to local authorities.
The assault comes as Putin signals he intends only to escalate the war, even as Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes into Russian territory have begun to squeeze the country’s economy and stoke growing public anger over the years-long conflict.
A surprise visit to Moscow this week by CIA Director John Ratcliffe set off feverish speculation that Washington may be attempting to dissuade the Kremlin from some kind of unprecedented attack, either on Ukraine or a NATO country. And despite reassurances from both sides that the trip was no cause for alarm, Russia’s Defense Ministry quickly followed up by releasing footage of a test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile on Friday. It said the missile had successfully hit its targets more than 4,000 miles away with a “flawless trajectory.”
