Ukraine’s embattled President Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed repeated Russian attempts to assassinate him as no worse than a COVID-19 attack.
The big-hearted leader said at least “five or six” plots to kill him had been foiled by Ukrainian intelligence services.
In a world exclusive interview, Zelensky also said Ukraine’s will to defeat Vladimir Putin’s Russia remains strong — and “in spirit, there is no deadlock.”
He said his people were tired of “permanent air raids,” tired of being shelled, tired of their homes being destroyed and their loved ones killed. But he added: “If you ask them are you willing to surrender to Russia, our land? Are you ready to talk to the Russians about how to end all this? Are you ready to compromise, personally, with Putin and are you tired of this?
“They will tell you we are not tired. We are ready to stand further.”
‘The first one is interesting’
Speaking at his headquarters in Kyiv, Zelensky admitted he had lost track of all attempts to kill him since Russia launched a massive invasion on February 24 last year.
He said: “The first one was very interesting, when it was the first time, and after that it was just like COVID.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he has lost track of the number of Russian assassination plots he has survived since the start of the invasion in 2022. Volodymyr Zelenskyy/Instagram Zelensky meets with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in Kyiv on November 20, 2023. Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP
“First of all, people don’t know what to do with it and it looks very scary.
“And after that, it’s just intelligence sharing with you that another group is coming to Ukraine [attempt] this.”
Russian special forces parachuted into Kyiv to kill him on the first day of Putin’s invasion.
His bodyguards cordoned off his office with makeshift barriers and sheets of plywood.
Zelensky met with NewsCorp Chairman and Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch, Fox news reporter Benjamin Hall, who was injured in Ukraine, and Sun reporter Jerome Starkey in Kyiv, Ukraine. Instagram/Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Zelensky and his closest aides were issued rifles and body armor.
Someone said the office was like a “mad house.”
But when British and US officials offered to drive the president out of the capital – amid fears it could fall within hours – he responded with the legendary line: “I need bullets, not rides.”
Later, as fighting raged outside Kyiv, Zelensky walked outside the compound to record a defiant selfie video that provoked Ukrainian opposition by proving he was still in the capital.
Zelensky decisively revealed his location to Russia after the invasion began in February 2022. Ukrainian soldier Volodymyr Zelenskyy is stationed in downtown Kyiv on February 25, 2022 after the Russian invasion began.AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti
‘Operation: Maidan 3’
Nearly two years later, Zelensky said Russia still “very much wants” to oust him from power.
He also knows the code name of their latest mission to overthrow him and the deadline is the end of the year.
He said: “The name of the operation is Maidan 3.
“It aims to change the president. It’s goodbye.
“Maybe not by killing. I mean it changes. They will use any instrument they have.”
He has ruled out holding elections next year, insisting they are illegal under martial law, impossible because of the war and will divide the country as people focus on fighting Russia.
Zelensky with Ukrainian troops at a battle site in Bucha on April 4, 2022. AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky Pro-Russian troops on a tank in Ukraine’s Donetsk region on March 1, 2022.REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko
Dressed in a trademark sweatshirt emblazoned with the Ukrainian trident symbol, he admitted his country’s counter-attack this year has not gone as expected.
The army in a major counterattack advanced only 10 miles in five months.
He acknowledged the lack of progress had discouraged some allies who doubted whether Ukraine could expel Russian troops.
And he admitted: “We need more successful decisions on the battlefield.”
But he denied his top general’s claims that the war had reached a stalemate.
Zelensky praised “brave” journalists for covering the Ukrainian war.Instagram/Volodymyr Zelenskyy
He said: “In spirit, there is no deadlock.
“We are in our house. Russia is on our land. Therefore there is no deadlock in this regard.
“Regarding the sky, there is no stalemate. Russia has more power in that regard.
“And really, how to move forward when you can’t control the sky?”
The US Congress has also blocked plans for $60 billion in aid amid Republican claims that the war in Ukraine will be a “forever war.”
Black Sea Victory
But Zelensky vowed to fight and insisted the war was “not a movie.”
And he said the lack of progress on land was offset by success in the Black Sea, which he said was also part of the counteroffensive.
A series of missile and drone attacks on Russian warships forced Putin to withdraw his Black Sea fleet eastward and allowed Ukraine to open a grain export corridor hugging the northwest coast.
Zelensky said he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin did not want to end the war. Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
Zelensky said: “We completely destroyed part of the Russian fleet.
“We succeeded. We moved them. They have no influence at all in the Black Sea region.”
He acknowledged the people were tired of war but said there was no appetite to demand peace.
He added: “We don’t believe that Putin or Russia, we don’t believe that they want to end the war.
“They want to kill us. And we want justice. Therefore, we are not talking about peace at any price.
“We talk about a just peace, because it is very important when we talk about fatigue, where it comes from.
“Is it difficult on the battlefield? yes. But be friends or enter the diplomatic table now with Russia? No!”
Jerome Starkey is the UK Sun’s defense editor.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
