A former Israeli prime minister who served briefly as a mediator at the start of Russia’s war with Ukraine says he drew a promise from Russian President Vladimir Putin not to kill his Ukrainian counterpart.
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett emerged as an unlikely intermediary in the war’s first weeks, becoming one of the few Western leaders to meet Mr Putin during the war in a snap trip to Moscow last March.
While Mr Bennett’s mediation efforts appear to have done little to end the bloodshed that continues until today, his remarks, in an interview posted online on Saturday, shed light on the backroom diplomacy and urgent efforts underway to try to bring the conflict to a speedy conclusion in its early days.
In the five-hour interview, which touched on numerous other subjects, Mr Bennett says he asked Mr Putin about whether he intended to kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
‘Are you planning to kill Zelensky?’
“I asked ‘what’s with this? Are you planning to kill Zelensky?’ He said ‘I won’t kill Zelensky.’ I then said to him ‘I have to understand that you’re giving me your word that you won’t kill Zelensky.’ He said ‘I’m not going to kill Zelensky’.”
Mr Bennett said he then called Mr Zelensky to inform him of Mr Putin’s pledge.
“‘Listen, I came out of a meeting, he’s not going to kill you.’ He asks, ‘are you sure?’ I said ‘100 per cent he won’t kill you’.”
Mr Bennett said that during his mediation, Mr Putin dropped his vow to seek Ukraine’s disarmament and Mr Zelensky promised not to join NATO.
There was no immediate response from the Kremlin, which has previously denied Ukrainian claims that Russia intended to assassinate Mr Zelensky.
Uncomfortable middle ground
Mr Bennett, a largely untested leader who had served as prime minister for just over six months when the war broke out, unexpectedly thrust himself into international diplomacy after he had positioned Israel into an uncomfortable middle ground between Russia and Ukraine. Israel views its good ties with the Kremlin as strategic in the face of threats from Iran but it aligns itself with Western nations and also seeks to show support for Ukraine.
An observant Jew and little known internationally, he flew to Moscow for his meeting with Mr Putin during the Jewish Sabbath, breaking his religious commitments and putting himself at the forefront of global efforts to halt the war.
But his peacemaking efforts did not appear to take off and his time in power was short-lived. Mr Bennett’s government, an ideologically diverse union that sent current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into a brief political exile, collapsed in the summer over infighting. Mr Bennett stepped away from politics and is now a private citizen.
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