Vladimir Putin compared killer whale attacks on polar bears to the war in Ukraine during an address to teachers and students ahead of the new school year, leaving his audience baffled by the strange tirade.
The Russian president launched into the animal analogy after one educator recounted a story about visiting the North Pole and seeing two polar bears there. Putin then spoke at length about apex predators.
Putin's killer whale tirade
"Imagine, there are killer whales living right there," the Russian dictator said. "They eat these bears like small fry. They just pounce in a pod and tear them to pieces."
He added: "It's all very interesting. It's like a food chain. Children need to be told about this too, so they understand the world we live in and why we're conducting a special military operation."
At no point did Putin explain how the killer whale attacks on polar bears are connected to the reasons for the invasion of Ukraine. It remains unclear whether he was comparing Russia to a pod of killer whales or casting Volodymyr Zelensky as the helpless polar bear.
Recent odd public behaviour
The comments come after Putin issued a chilling warning to the West, insisting that Kiev had "opened up Pandora's box".
It is not the first time the Russian president has behaved strangely in public. In June, during a visit to the Gromov Flight Research in Zhukovsky, Putin was seen lovingly caressing the cockpit of a passenger aircraft for an unsettlingly long amount of time. The Kremlin later published pictures of the moment.
In April, Putin dressed as a schoolboy while meeting the President-elect of the Republic of Indonesia, pulling a number of bizarre facial expressions that drew comparisons to a "human emoji".
