Former Israeli Prime Minister Bennett, who briefly brokered the conflict shortly after Russia moved into Ukraine last year, said Russian President Vladimir Putin had promised him he would not kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
▲Russian President Putin (left) promised not to kill Ukrainian President Zelensky (right). (Synthetic image / Reposted from Twitter, IG)
Naftali Bennett, who helped mediate the Russia-Ukraine conflict in the first week of the war, visited Moscow last March and became one of the few Western leaders to have met with Vladimir Putin during the war, the Associated Press reported.
While such efforts appeared to do little to end the war, Bennett said in an interview posted online late on the 4th that he had asked Putin if he planned to kill Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“I asked, ‘What’s going on? Are you planning to kill Zelensky?'” Bennett said. “He (referring to Putin) said, ‘I’m not going to kill Zelensky. Said, ‘I have to be clear, you are promising me that Zelensky will not be killed.’ He said, ‘I will not kill Zelensky.'”
Bennett said he then called Zelensky to inform Putin of his commitment. He said to the other party, “‘Listen, I just finished the meeting, he (referring to Putin) is not going to kill you.’ He (referring to Zelensky) asked, ‘Are you sure?’ I said, ‘One hundred percent, He won’t kill you.””
Bennett also said that during the mediation, Putin dropped his previous declaration seeking to disarm Ukraine and Zelensky pledged not to join NATO.
The Kremlin has yet to respond. Moscow has denied Kyiv’s assertion that Russia intended to assassinate Zelensky.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted today in response: “Don’t be fooled: he is an expert at lying. Every time he promises not to do something, it will be exactly what he is Part of the plan.” (Central News Agency, Tel Aviv, 5th)