Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a new interview that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally guaranteed to him that he wouldn’t kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Bennett traveled to Moscow in March 2022 to try and broker a deal for peace between Russia and Ukraine, where he met with Putin. During that meeting, Putin assured Bennett he was not going to assassinate the Ukrainian president, Bennett claimed in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 published Saturday night.
In the past, Putin has made promises not to occupy Crimea, not to violate Minsk agreements, not to invade Ukraine, yet he has done all of these things. Do not be fooled: he is an expert liar. Every time he has promised not to do something, it has been exactly part of his plan. pic.twitter.com/LGkwUeOYBK
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 5, 2023
Bennett said in the interview that he then called Zelenskyy to tell him he was not under personal threat from Putin, according to the Jerusalem Post. He said he had traveled to Moscow in secret on behalf of Zelenskyy to try to reach a deal between the two sides, but was unsuccessful.
The former Israeli leader also claimed that Putin’s tone turned dark when he proposed a meeting between the Russian president and Zelenskyy. “They’re Nazis, they’re warmongers, I won’t meet him,” Putin is alleged to have said, according to the outlet.
Bennett said he felt a responsibility to try to solve the situation due to the number of Jews living in Russia and Ukraine who would be hurt by a protracted war. (RELATED: China Undermining US Sanctions To Aid Russia’s War In Ukraine, Report Finds)
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba refuted Bennett’s version of events after the interview was published. “In the past, Putin has made promises not to occupy Crimea, not to violate Minsk agreements, not to invade Ukraine, yet he has done all of these things,” he tweeted. “Do not be fooled: he is an expert liar. Every time he has promised not to do something, it has been exactly part of his plan.”
Kuleba did not dispute that Putin may have made those comments to Bennett, but rather the idea that the concessions secured by Bennett were meaningful or real.
Bennett served as Prime Minister of Israel from June 2021 to June 2022.