The atrocities of the Russian occupiers in the occupied territories are the consequences of the state's information policy, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky believes.

"The authorities influenced this. These people are not free. They don't choose what to watch, what to read. They live in an information forest, deep and dark. And they don't even understand how civilization is developing. And they are told that they are a supernation. The same as the Nazis had. All the others are second, third, fifth grade like in a butcher shop," he said in an interview with NBC, released on Wednesday.

"Information policy always comes from the leadership. The leader does not tell them go and rape. The leaders have made of them those people who are capable of these terrible steps," Zelensky said.