Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who met Vladimir Putin last March, in the midst of war, made some startling revelations in an interview, reports The Associated Press.
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The Prime Minister acted as a mediator between the Ukrainian and Russian governments when he was in office.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February, the former Israeli prime minister has been one of the only Western leaders to travel to Moscow to meet the master of the Kremlin.
Although the talks between the two leaders did not lead to a solution to end the hostilities, Naftali Bennett said that it was necessary to cooperate with Putin, in particular in a meeting which took place last March.
In a long interview, he returned to his mandate. The war in Ukraine has been the subject of several issues, including the rumor that Vladimir Putin was seeking to kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“I asked him, ‘what about that rumour? [M. Poutine]do you want to kill Zelensky?”
Vladimir Putin reportedly replied, “I’m not going to kill Zelensky.”
wise Zelensky
A few hours after his meeting in the Kremlin, Bennett would have contacted the Ukrainian president to advise him of Putin’s statements.
“Listen [M. Zelensky]I just finished the encounter, he won’t kill you […] I can tell you 100% that he won’t kill you.”
Among other topics discussed with Vladimir Putin, the Israeli politician points out that Zelensky had promised him that Ukraine would not join NATO.
Moreover, the Russian president would have accepted that Ukraine could always develop its army.
Let us recall that Naftali Bennett was Prime Minister of Israel for six months.