Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett claims he obtained a promise from Russian President Vladimir Putin that he would not kill his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Bennett became an unlikely go-between in the first weeks of the war, one of the few Western leaders to meet the Russian president during the war on a fleeting trip to Moscow last March.
Although Bennett's mediation efforts appeared to have made little progress in ending the violence that continues today, his comments in an interview posted online Saturday offered a glimpse into behind-the-scenes diplomacy and urgent efforts to put a swift end to the conflict in its early days.
In the five-hour interview, which touched on many other topics, Bennett said he had asked Putin if he intended to kill Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“I asked, ‘what about this? Do you plan to kill Zelensky?' He said, 'I will not kill Zelensky.' So I told him, 'I have to understand that he is giving me his word that he will not kill Zelensky.' He said, 'I'm not going to kill Zelensky.'
Bennett said he had later called Zelensky to inform him of Putin's promise.
“‘Look, I left a meeting, you are not going to kill him. He asked, 'are you sure?' I told him '100% that it will not kill him.
During their mediation efforts, Bennett said, Putin withdrew his promise to seek Ukraine's disarmament and Zelensky vowed not to join NATO.
There was no immediate response from the Kremlin, which has in the past denied Ukrainian accusations that Russia intended to assassinate Zelensky.
Bennett, an inexperienced leader who had been prime minister for just six months when the war broke out, made an unexpected leap into international diplomacy after positioning Israel on an awkward middle ground between Russia and Ukraine. Israel views its good relations with the Kremlin as strategic in the face of threats from Iran, but it is aligned with Western countries and also tries to show support for Ukraine.
The ex-president, a practicing Jew and little known internationally, traveled to Moscow for his meeting with Putin on the Jewish Sabbath, breaking his religious commitments and putting himself at the forefront of global efforts to stop the war.
