Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks on the phone during a conversation with Agatha Bylkova from the Kurgan region, an 8-year-old participant of the New Year and Christmas charity event, in Moscow, Russia, January 3, 2023.
Mikhail Klimentiev Sputnik Via Reuters
A former Israeli prime minister who served briefly as a mediator at the start of Russia’s war with Ukraine said he promised the Russian president not to kill his Ukrainian counterpart.
Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett emerged as an unlikely mediator in the first weeks of the war, becoming one of the few Western leaders to meet wartime President Vladimir Putin during a trip to Moscow last March.
While Bennett’s mediation efforts appear to have done little to stop the bloodshed that has continued so far, he said, in an interview posted online last Saturday, that the backroom diplomacy and urgent efforts are being made to try to quickly defuse the conflict. conclusion in the early days.
In the five-hour interview, which touched on many other topics, Bennett said he asked Putin if he wanted to kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“I asked ‘what’s with this? Are you going to kill Zelenskyy?’ He said ‘I will not kill Zelenskyy.’ I then said to him ‘I need to know if you give me your word that you will not kill Zelenskyy.’ He said ‘I will not kill Zelenskyy.'”
Bennett said he later called Zelenskyy to inform him of Putin’s promise.
“‘Listen, I’m out of the meeting, they’re not going to kill you.’ He asked, ‘Are you sure?’ I said ‘100% they won’t kill you.'”
Bennett said that during the mediation, Putin reneged on an oath to call for Ukraine’s disarmament and Zelenskyy promised not to join NATO.
There was no immediate response from the Kremlin, which has previously denied Ukrainian claims that Russia intended to kill Zelenskyy.
Bennett, a largely untested leader who had served as prime minister for just over six months when the war broke out, suddenly thrust himself into international diplomacy after he had positioned Israel in the middle of an uneasy relationship between Russia and Ukraine. Israel views good relations with the Kremlin as strategic in the face of the threat from Iran, but aligns itself with Western countries and also seeks support for Ukraine.
An observant Jew and not known internationally, he flew to Moscow for a meeting with Putin on the Jewish Sabbath, breaking his religious commitment and putting himself at the forefront of global efforts to end the war.
But his peace efforts were not seen and his time in power was short-lived. Bennett’s government, a union of ideological differences that sent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into brief political exile, collapsed in the summer amid conflict. Bennett is out of politics and is now a private citizen.