Putin quoted song lyrics about rape and necrophilia to explain Russia's demands from Ukraine
- French President Emmanuel Macron met Putin on Monday to try to prevent a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
- After the meeting, Putin said Ukraine has refused to implement parts of a 2014 cease-fire agreement.
President Vladimir Putin quoted Soviet-era punk-rock lyrics about rape and necrophilia to demonstrate what Russia wants from Ukraine.
Putin made the comment in a press conference Monday following a five-hour meeting with Emmanuel Macron, in which the French president tried to convince Putin to find a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis.
Russia has deployed 130,000 troops at Ukraine's border, with US officials warning that an invasion could come any day.
At the joint press conference, Putin blamed NATO and the West for provoking Russia, and said Ukraine must be made to implement elements of the Minsk Protocol — a 2014 cease-fire agreement to end fighting between Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
Putin criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for failing to implement the protocol, and referenced an obscene song lyric to demonstrate what he wanted.
"Whether you like it or don't like it, bear with it, my beauty," Putin said.
Russia experts noted that Putin appeared to be quoting from "Sleeping Beauty in a Coffin" by the Soviet-era punk rock group Red Mold.
"Sleeping beauty in a coffin, I crept up and fucked her. Like it, or dislike it, sleep my beauty," the English translation of the Russian lyrics reads.
The lyrics directly imply rape and necrophilia, suggesting Putin wants Ukraine to acquiesce to his demands without putting up a fight.
Neither the Kremlin nor the state-run Tass news agency published the line as it was said by Putin in their transcripts of the speech.
A Kremlin spokesperson denied that Putin's words were drawn from the song, "but rather from folklore."
The 2014 protocol was a complicated, long-negotiated proposal to end fighting in the Donbas region and give it unique status, including independent elections.
"It is clear to everyone that the current authorities in Kyiv have set a course for dismantling the Minsk accords," Putin said Monday. "There are no shifts on such fundamental issues as constitutional reform, amnesty, local elections, and the legal aspects of a special status for Donbas."
Russia launched an attack on Ukraine in 2014 following widespread opposition in Kyiv to a decision by then President Viktor Yanukovich to shun the EU and move Ukraine closer to Russia.
Ukraine's government eventually impeached Yanukovich, and he fled to Russia. Putin annexed Crimea in 2014 and launched a proxy war in the Donbas soon after.
Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, and Putin has spoken before about the need for the two nations to be deeply connected once again.