Aha Dua Permata: Kremlin responds to Zelensky’s ‘kill Putin’ insinuation

Wednesday 22 November 2023

Kremlin responds to Zelensky’s ‘kill Putin’ insinuation

FILE PHOTO: Church of Archangel Michael and Assumption Cathedral behind Kremlin Wall in Moscow, Russia.
©Getty Images/Hans Neleman

Kiev’s threats to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin are nothing new, but have mostly remained in the realm of narratives as opposed to reality, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

“If you remember, there have been verbal attempts on Putin’s life from Ukraine many times at various levels,” Peskov told journalist Pavel Zarubin. “They will not succeed.”

Peskov’s comments came in reaction to an interview of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to the British tabloid The Sun, published on Monday evening. In the interview, Zelensky claimed to have survived at least five Russian assassination attempts, and suggested that he would have Putin killed if given the opportunity.

“That’s war, and Ukraine has all the rights to defend our land,” Zelensky told the outlet.

Ukrainian spies have been responsible for a series of assassinations in Russia over the past two years, the Washington Post reported last month, citing sources in the CIA, which has admitted to funding Kiev’s intelligence.

Kiev has officially denied having anything to do with the murders of journalist Darya Dugina and blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, or the attempted murder of author Zakhar Prilepin.

Zelensky himself denied responsibility for the May 3 drone attack on Moscow, which caused slight damage to the roof of the Kremlin. While Putin’s office issued a statement condemning the “assassination attempt,” Peskov later clarified that the Russian president wasn’t in his office at the time.

The Ukrainian leader has tried to regain the West’s attention over the past six weeks, after lamenting that he had lost the limelight to the Israel-Gaza conflict. Though they promised to “stand with Ukraine,” the US and the EU have largely run out of military supplies that could be sent to Kiev, while also facing an uphill battle to greenlight additional financial aid.

Ukraine has lost over 13,000 troops this month – Moscow

Ukraine has lost over 13,700 troops and approximately 1,800 tanks and other heavy weaponry so far this month, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told his government colleagues on Tuesday during a ministerial meeting

FILE PHOTO: Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu. © Sputnik / Russian Defence Ministry

Russian forces have been actively thwarting Kiev’s attempts to breach their defensive lines and continue to reduce Ukraine’s military capacity, the senior official said. He claimed that Ukrainian soldiers were surrendering in droves after realizing the futility of their counteroffensive.

The minister issued his last assessment of Ukrainian casualties in late October, when he said they had surpassed 90,000 since the start of Kiev’s ill-fated counteroffensive in early July. During this week’s meeting, Shoigu described the cost paid by Ukrainian soldiers in the conflict as “colossal.”

Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s top general, previously said that the conflict with Russia had reached a “stalemate” and that his armed forces would likely not achieve a breakthrough in the confrontation anytime soon. President Vladimir Zelensky has disputed the assessment, claiming that progress was still being made in his nation’s attempt to return Ukraine to its pre-2014 borders.

On Monday, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited Kiev to meet Zelensky and announce Washington’s latest package of military assistance, worth some $100 million. The Pentagon, however, has warned that it is running out of money authorized by Congress to be spent on Ukraine.

The funding has become contentious on Capitol Hill; the conservative wing of the Republican party opposes further aid. Critics of the White House’s pledge to support Kiev for “as long as it takes” have complained about a lack of transparency and argued that the US has more important priorities.

Some GOP lawmakers have described the Zelensky government as a problematic recipient of aid, in light of a string of graft scandals this year, including in the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.

On Tuesday, the Ukrainian leader welcomed more foreign dignitaries in the capital, including German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, European Council President Charles Michel and Moldovan President Maia Sandu. The country is commemorating the 10th anniversary of what Kiev calls the “Revolution of Dignity,” the mass protests and armed overthrow of Ukraine’s democratically-elected government that ultimately led to the current confrontation with Russia.