Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that his country has every right to kill his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin if the opportunity arises, if doing so would protect Ukraine and his people.
Zelensky made the remarks in a wide-ranging interview with The Sun in Kyiv, telling the tabloid newspaper that he has lost track of the number of times Moscow has attempted to assassinate him since Putin launched a full-scale invasion of his country in February 2022.
"That's war, and Ukraine has all the rights to defend our land," the Ukrainian leader said when asked if Kyiv would take a chance to assassinate Putin if such an opportunity arose.
Newsweek has contacted Russia's Foreign Ministry via email for comment.
The Kremlin responded to Zelensky's remarks on Tuesday saying that Ukraine has verbally attempted to assassinate Putin many times before.
"There have been verbal attempts on Putin's life many times from Ukraine. At various levels. We are well aware of this. And they will not succeed in anything," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"We have no doubt that all the goals and objectives of the special military operation will be achieved," Peskov said.
Zelensky said Russia still "wants very much" to oust him from power, and that Moscow has a deadline to do so by the end of 2024.
"The name of the operation is Maidan 3. It is meant to change the president. It's bye bye. Maybe it's not by killing. I mean it's changing. They will use any instruments they have," the Ukrainian president said.
"So that's the idea, to the end of the year. They have even named the operation. But you see we can live with it."
Just a few months into the war, in May 2022, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhail Podolyak claimed that Zelensky had survived over a dozen assassination attempts since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
"Our foreign partners are talking about two or three attempts. I believe that there were more than a dozen such attempts," he told Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda.
"Because we constantly have operation information that there are some DRGs [sabotage and intelligence groups], who want to enter the government quarter and so on.
"We have a very powerful network of intelligence and counterintelligence, they track it all, and all these DRGs are being liquidated on the way.
"That is, we understand all the plans and our counterintelligence work on them," he said.
"From a security point of view, I cannot talk about some things. These risks have not disappeared anywhere," Podolyak said. "Western intelligence is right to say that the main target for Putin was Mr. Zelensky in terms of attacking the government quarter and trying to kill the country's key manager."
Zelensky told The Sun that the first attempt on his life was "very interesting."
"After that, it is just like COVID," he said. "First of all people don't know what to do with it and it's looking very scary. And then after that, it is just intelligence sharing with you detail that one more group came to Ukraine to [attempt] this."
Do you have a tip on a world news story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about the Russia-Ukraine war? Let us know via worldnews@newsweek.com.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Isabel van Brugen is a Newsweek Reporter based in Kuala Lumpur. Her focus is reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war. Isabel ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
