Gerard Depardieu: Kremlin responds to actor's Putin criticism

The Kremlin has hit back after French actor Gerard Depardieu accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of "crazy, unacceptable excesses" in Ukraine.

Depardieu said the Russian people were not responsible for their president's behaviour.

Mr Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the actor probably did not completely understand the situation in Ukraine and offered to explain it.

Depardieu left France for tax reasons and took Russian citizenship in 2013.

He received his Russian passport from President Putin in person in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

At the time, the actor and the president shook hands and hugged each other, with Depardieu describing Russia as "a great democracy".

In 2015, Ukraine banned him from entering the country for five years after he supported Russia's annexation of Crimea.

Despite this, the actor denounced the war in Ukraine shortly after it began in February and called for negotiations.

Depardieu's criticism of the Russian leader was made to French news agency AFP on Thursday.

"The Russian people are not responsible for the crazy, unacceptable excesses of their leaders like Vladimir Putin," he said.

Depardieu has also said he will donate all the proceeds from three nights of concerts in Paris, starting on Friday night, to "Ukrainian victims of this tragic fratricidal war".