Zelensky told The Sun in his recent interview with them that he supposedly survived “five or six” assassination plots that he blamed on President Putin. This dramatic claim contradicts what former Israeli Prime Minister Bennett told his country’s media in spring regarding the Russian leader’s pledge not to harm his Ukrainian counterpart. He said that he called Zelensky right after their meeting in March 2022 to tell him that “he’s not going to kill you” and that he was “one hundred percent” sure of this.
There are other reasons to be skeptical of what Zelensky just said, namely that Western media would have certainly amplified credible reports of any assassination attempts against him if they existed. Their narrative interests naturally rest in fearmongering about Russia in general and President Putin in particular, yet the very fact that they didn’t push any such reports suggests that they simply aren’t true. This rational insight leads to the question of why Zelensky would make this claim, let alone right now.
The larger context is that “NATO’s Proxy War On Russia Through Ukraine Appears To Be Winding Down” as a result of Kiev’s failed counteroffensive, dwindling Western stockpiles, and several other converging factors that were described in the preceding hyperlinked analysis. Zelensky might therefore be trying to scare the West into keeping up the pace, scale, and scope of its armed aid to Ukraine in spite of these dynamics even though this is becoming increasingly difficult for political and logistical reasons.
Another supplementary motivation could be that he’s desperately trying to maintain their support for his regime amidst his spiraling rivalry with Commander-in-Chief Zaluzhny, which he also addressed in his interview with The Sun. They felt that part was so important that it was published as a separate article here in order to attract maximum attention to what he said. In brief, he fearmongered about how this rivalry could divide the country and scolded unnamed generals for allegedly having political ambitions.
Considering this, Zelensky might have thought that he’d reaffirm his anti-Russian credentials in the West’s eyes by now all of a sudden claiming to have survived “five or six” assassination plots that he blamed on President Putin, which could serve to deter them from backing Zaluzhny against him. The subtext is that the Russian leader is supposedly obsessed with removing his Ukrainian counterpart so the West would inadvertently be doing his bidding if they support any potential power play by Zaluzhny.
A less likely motivation but one which still can’t be ruled out is that Zelensky wanted to meddle in Russian-Israeli ties by making it seem like President Putin lied to former Prime Minister Bennett. The timing of this claim could have been meant to coincide with their disagreements over the latest Israeli-Hamas war caused by Tel Aviv pressuring Moscow to take its side while the latter insists on remaining neutral. In other words, Zelensky could have hoped that this might worsen mutual suspicions.
To sum it up, this latest lie from the Ukrainian leader was arguably intended to scare the West into keeping up its armed aid to his regime, deter them from supporting his newfound rival from the armed forces, and meddle in Russian-Israeli ties during this sensitive moment in their relations. If there was even an inkling of truth to what he claimed, then the Western media would have hyped these plots up long ago, but they never did despite having an interest in this which is why nobody should believe him.
