Naftali Bennett, a former Israeli prime minister, claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin promised not to assassinate his Ukrainian equivalent.
In the early stages of Russia’s 11-month war with Ukraine, Bennett emerged as an odd middleman, and during a trip to Moscow in March of last year, he became one of the select few leaders to see Putin.
Bennett’s mediation efforts may not have had much of an impact on the current bloodshed, but his comments from a late-Saturday interview on his YouTube channel provided light on the murky negotiations and hasty efforts that were made to resolve the dispute as soon as possible.
Bennett claims he questioned Putin during the five-hour conversation, which also covered a wide range of other topics, whether he had any plans to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“I questioned, ‘What’s going on? Do you intend to murder Zelenskyy? I won’t kill Zelenskyy, he declared. I continued by telling him, “I have to understand that you’re giving me your word that you won’t harm Zelenskyy.” I’m not going to kill Zelenskyy, he declared.
Bennett claimed that after then, he called Zelenskyy to tell him of Putin’s promise.
Listen, I just got out of a meeting; he won’t kill you. Are you sure, he queries. I assured her, “He won’t kill you at all.”
According to Bennett, Zelenskyy pledged not to join NATO, and Putin dropped his desire for Ukraine to seek disarmament during their mediation.
The Kremlin, which has consistently refuted Ukrainian charges that Russia wanted to assassinate Zelenskyy, did not respond right away.
Bennett’s statements were contested by a presidential adviser from Ukraine.
Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter, “Ex-assertions official’s on’mediation’ that Putin reportedly made ‘guarantees not to murder’ and ‘the West disrupted promising conversations’ are fake.
According to Podolyak, Russia’s “special military operation” is motivated by its desire to “destroy Ukraine and kill Ukrainians,” not by NATO expansion, security assurances, or sanctions.
Putin is “an accomplished liar,” said Dmytro Kuleba, the foreign minister of Ukraine.
“Putin has previously pledged not to take Crimea, break Minsk agreements, or attack Ukraine, but he has really done all of these things. Do not be duped… Every time he has made a pledge not to do something, it has actually been a part of his plan, according to Kuleba.
When the conflict broke out in February 2022, Bennett, a completely inexperienced leader who had only been prime minister for six months, unexpectedly stepped into international diplomacy after placing Israel in an awkward middle ground between Russia and Ukraine.
In light of Iran’s threats, Israel sees its strong ties with the Kremlin as strategically important. However, it also stands with Western countries and tries to support Ukraine.
Bennett, an observant Jew who was little known abroad, broke his religious obligations to fly to Moscow for his meeting with Putin on the Jewish Sabbath, putting himself at the vanguard of international attempts to end the war.
His tenure in authority was brief, though, and it appeared that his efforts to bring about peace were ineffective. Infighting caused Bennett’s cabinet, an ideologically varied coalition that briefly exiled current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to fall in June 2022.
Bennett left politics and is currently a private person.
