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| Profile photo – Russian President Vladimir Putin and then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett meet in Sochi, Russia, October 2021, 10. |
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett ( Naftali Bennett revealed in a public interview on Saturday (Feb. 2) that during his visit to Moscow last year for mediation after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Putin had promised that he would not kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Bennett covered a wide range of topics in the five-hour online interview.
Bennett, then Israel’s prime minister, became an unlikely intermediary in the first weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one of the very few Western leaders to meet Putin. He made an unannounced visit to Moscow last March to meet with Putin for three hours.
The media reported on Feb. 2 that while Bennett’s good offices to end the war had made little progress, Saturday’s interview with him revealed some of the diplomatic and other urgent efforts behind the attempt to end the war as quickly as possible.
Bennett said in an online interview that he asked Putin during the meeting whether he intended to kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “I asked, ‘Are you planning to kill Zelensky?’ He said, ‘I won’t kill Zelensky.’ I then said to him, ‘I have to understand that you are promising me that you will not kill Zelensky.’ He said, ‘I won’t kill Zelensky.’ ’”
Bennett said in the interview that he later called Zelensky and told him about Putin’s promises. Bennett said, “‘Listen, I just finished the meeting, and he’s not going to kill you.'” He asked, ‘Are you sure?’ I said, ‘One hundred percent (sure) he won’t kill you.’ ’”
Bennett also revealed in the interview that during his mediation, Putin abandoned his request to seek to disarm Ukraine, and Zelensky also promised not to join NATO.
The media said there was no immediate response from the Kremlin. Russia has previously denied Ukrainian claims that Russia tried to assassinate Zelensky.
The report said that Bennett was only six months as Israel’s prime minister at the time of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an untrained leader, but he was unexpectedly involved in international mediation diplomacy. Israel sees strategic relations with Russia in the face of the Iranian threat, but it also aligns itself with Western countries that seek to support Ukraine.
However, Bennett’s peace efforts did not make much progress, and his own political career was very short. His coalition government collapsed last summer because of infighting.
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