99-Year-Old Ukrainian Asks For Putin’s Death As 100th Birthday Gift

A 99-year-old Ukrainian woman, who lived through the rise and fall of the Soviet Union, wished for Russian President Vladimir Putin's death as a gift for her next birthday.

"I'd like [Putin] to die," Anna Bahatelya said when asked what she would like for her 100th birthday this August, The Guardian reported.

The elderly woman survived the Nazi occupation of Ukraine back in World War II, the Holodomor famine introduced to her country and even the Soviet Union's collapse.

Bahatelya also lived through a bout with COVID-19 in January despite being unvaccinated, but now she faces Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"Now again, the people are suffering," Bahatelya said in an interview at her home on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, where she lives with her 69-year-old daughter, Olha Punyk.

When asked about Putin, Bahatelya made a rude hand gesture and called the Russian head of state "the worst man in the world."

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 to "denazify" its western neighbor. But the current Ukrainian government is not a fascist dictatorship, nor is it in any way associated with the Nazi past.

Moreover, Ukraine's democratically elected president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is Jewish and has relatives who fought in the Soviet Army against the Nazis.

Despite the discrepancies between Putin's words and reality, more than half of Russians supported their country's invasion of Ukraine, which Russia still calls a "special military operation."

The current situation is similar to what happened when Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin died, Bahatelya said.

"She told me that when Stalin died, she cried. She cried sincere tears, because they thought it was a tragedy. They were zombified back then, just like the Russians are zombified by their propaganda today," Punyk said.

Russia has retreated from parts of Ukraine following its promise to scale back military operations in certain regions.

The move was intended "to increase mutual trust and create conditions for further negotiations" between Ukraine and Russia, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said.

American officials warned that Russia might be shifting its strategy to focus on trying to take control of eastern Ukrainian regions such as Donbas by the time the country celebrates its biggest holiday, Victory Day, on May 9, CNN reported.

Ukraine has reported 4,968,881 COVID-19 infections and 107,980 virus-related deaths, based on data provided by Reuters.