Ukrainian singer Kamaliya talks about performing for Putin
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In an Instagram post on March 20, she said that she had met Putin for the first time in Kyiv, after which she began receiving personal invitations from him.
“I gave concerts for Putin many times,” she said.
“Life has a lot of surprises! You can’t imagine it now. I met Putin in Kyiv, and then Putin began to invite me to the Kremlin to sing, since 2005. He called me often and then suddenly stopped calling. I don’t know why. After that, I saw the change of the president, he became a different person.”
The singer added that she could never have imagined that Putin would unleash a bloody war against Ukraine.
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“All of us, performing artists, were sitting and eating together after performances or during CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) summits,” Kamaliya said.
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“He seemed kind. At that time, if someone had told me that Putin would attack Ukraine, I would not have believed it. Because I know that he loves Ukraine. He always said that Ukraine and Russia should be together, but he wants a new USSR.”
Kamaliya, who now actively helps to raise funds for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, also spoke about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. She recalled their communication before his presidency and after Russia’s full-scale of Ukraine.
“Every time we took pictures together,” she said.
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“Smiles, parties, as we always communicate in show business. Every time he was very positive. He joked, smiled, was a very open person.”
Kamaliya added that Zelenskyy had appealed to her husband and UK-Pakistani entrepreneur, Mohammad Zahoor, with a request to make efforts to get Pakistan to abandon its neutrality.
“We held talks, but not directly with him, but through his team and through his people when he needed help from anywhere,” the singer added.
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“I’m not the only person it (Zelenskyy’s team) contacts, but if something is related to Pakistan, his people speak to me on his behalf. He knows that we do a lot ourselves, so they never ask for money. But he asks that Pakistan not be neutral, but on Ukraine’s side, pushing the Pakistani establishment to help with humanitarian aid and something else. Sometimes, in addition to diplomatic channels, they also use secret channels – like me.”
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