Zelenskyy spokesman shuts down interview idea with Tucker Carlson

A spokesperson for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday shut down the idea of an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

“Mr. Tucker Carlson should more carefully check his sources in the FSB. The president of Ukraine has a completely different schedule, and Tucker Carlson is not on it,” Zelenskyy spokesperson Sergii Nykyforov said in a statement. The FSB is Russia’s Federal Security Service.

The denial of the interview came after Mr. Carlson had posted Wednesday on X that it looks like “we’ve got the Zelenskyy interview.”

“We’ve been trying for two years, and with particular intensity after interviewing Putin in February,” he said. “The point is to bring Americans much-needed information about the conflict that’s completely reshaping their country’s position in the world. Coming soon we hope.”

This type of interview isn’t new for Mr. Carlson, who sat for a two-hour interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin in February and another with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán released last August.

Mr. Carlson’s interview with Mr. Putin caught him a lot of flak from journalists in the U.S. and Russia after he suggested that “not a single Western journalist has bothered to interview” the Russian leader.

“It’s our job, we’re in journalism. Our duty is to inform people. Two years into war that’s reshaping the entire world, most Americans are not informed,” he said in a video on X. “They have no real idea what’s happening in this region, here in Russia or 600 miles away in Ukraine.”

A week after the interview with Mr. Putin, the Russian leader said he “didn’t get complete satisfaction” from the event because he had expected more difficult questions.

Russia has been in its war with Ukraine for more than two years.

Ukrainians reacted negatively to Mr. Nykyforov’s statement in comments on Facebook.

“Good luck in the further push of American support of Ukraine,” one commenter said.

Another said “it’s a big mistake” to pooh-pooh the interview.

One called it “a shame.”

“Whether you like it or not, Carlson is one of the top influential journalists in the United States with a multimillion audience. It would be a chance to talk to another part of American society that we lack support,” the commenter said.