Putin security deputy’s assassination threat to Zelensky: Top Kremlin official says Ukraine leader ‘is unlikely to live to an old age’ after it was revealed he has survived five attempts on his life

Vladimir Putin’s security detail has issued a chilling warning that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is “unlikely to have a chance to grow old.”

The sickening new threat from Russian ex-president Dmitry Medvedev follows Zelensky’s revelation that he has already survived at least five assassination attempts against the Kremlin.

Medvedev – now Putin’s deputy on Russia’s Security Council – said: ‘All this cheap bravado also raises a very obvious thought.

‘With such powerful ‘prophecies’ it is unlikely that this fool will have a chance to grow old. Thoughts are sometimes material.’

Zelenskiy, 45, claimed that Ukrainian intelligence services have thwarted repeated attempts to kill him since the February 24 invasion.

The Ukrainian president also revealed that the Kremlin plans to overthrow him before the end of the year in a mission apparently being called ‘Maidan 3’ – a reference to the 2014 Euromaidan revolution, which sparked Russia’s annexation of Crimea and led to the outbreak of war.

Outlining Putin’s sinister attempts to assassinate him, Zelensky said: ‘The first one is very interesting, if it’s the first time, and after that it’s like Covid.

‘First of all, people don’t know what to do with it and it looks very scary.

“And then the intelligence community just shares details with you that another group came to Ukraine to (try to) do this.”

When asked how many attempts Russia made to kill him, he replied: “I don’t know, really. I don’t think less (than) five, six…no less.

“They’ll use whatever tools they have.”

In his lengthy and barely comprehensible message on Telegram, the 58-year-old Medvedev – who is believed to expect a return to the Kremlin if Putin is forced by illness or death – said of Zelensky: “Lord, what a miserable thing this Bandera scarecrow. .’

Medvedev was president of Russia from 2008 to 2012, when Putin was prime minister.

He then handed the top job back to the Russian dictator.

It comes as Germany unveiled another major military aid package for Ukraine on Tuesday during an unannounced visit to Kiev by its defense minister, coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the historic Maidan protests.

European Union leader Charles Michel and Moldovan leader Maia Sandu were also in the capital Kiev, becoming the latest officials to throw their political influence behind Ukraine in surprise trips.

A wave of visits by senior Western officials has sought to reassure Kiev of more military support as the world’s attention shifts to the Middle East and questions arise over U.S. financing for Ukraine.

The German package – worth 1.3 billion euros ($1.1 billion) and including four additional IRIS T-SLM air defense systems and artillery ammunition – was unveiled by Defense Minister Boris Pistorius after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umerov in Kiev.

“I am here again, first and foremost to pledge further support, but also to express our solidarity and deep bond and also our admiration for the brave, courageous and precious struggle being waged here,” Pistorius said earlier when he laid flowers on Maidan Square in central Kiev.

Michel, the president of the European Council, announced his arrival in Kiev by posting a photo of himself getting off the train on social media.

“Good to be among friends again in Kiev,” he wrote ahead of the expected meetings, including with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky met the head of the Pentagon earlier this week, who announced another $100 million in US military aid, and last week received British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who pledged continued British support.

The visits come in the wake of a disappointing Ukrainian counter-offensive in the south and east of the country that Kiev launched this summer after building up stockpiles of Western weapons.

Nevertheless, Ukraine recently claimed to have retaken several kilometers of land on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, which forms the de facto frontline in the south of the country.

Russia’s defense minister rejected those claims on Tuesday, saying his forces had thwarted Ukrainian attempts to land on the occupied bank in the Kherson region and that Kiev’s army had suffered “colossal losses”.

The Tuesday visits, which also included an announced trip by Moldovan leader Sandu, came on the 10th anniversary of massive pro-democracy demonstrations in Kiev that Zelensky linked to the Russian invasion.

The protest movement – ​​which saw around 100 civilians killed in violent clashes with security forces in the capital – eventually led to the ouster of Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovych.

‘Today’s first victory in the war took place. A victory over indifference. A victory of courage. The victory of the Revolution of Dignity,” Zelensky said in a statement marking the anniversary of the months-long protest movement.

The Maidan protests erupted in late 2013 when Yanukovych canceled a trade deal with the EU.

The protests led to separatist fighting in the east of the country.

Zelensky praised his country’s progress towards gaining EU membership since Russian forces launched a full-fledged invasion in February 2022.

‘Year by year, step by step, we do our best to ensure that our star shines in the circle of stars on the EU flag, which symbolizes the unity of the peoples of Europe. The star of Ukraine,” he said.

The EU’s executive commission recommended earlier this month that formal membership talks should be opened with Ukraine and Moldova, and suggested that the bloc’s 27 member states should grant Georgia candidate status.

However, the Kremlin described the Maidan protests as an attempt to overthrow the government with the support of foreign powers.

‘It was a coup. It was an overthrow of the authorities sponsored from abroad. The cases must be called by their names,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

Valentyna Bilan, who took part in the Maidan protests, told AFP she felt that “the Ukrainian people woke up” on the day the demonstrations began.

“They realized that we are not some kind of cattle, that they cannot beat our children and make everything decide for us,” she said in central Kiev.

‘I met the best people in the world then.’

Peskov, meanwhile, said Russia’s aim was to continue its invasion of Ukraine after it announced last year the unilateral annexation of four Ukrainian territories over which the country still does not have full military control.

The United Nations announced on Tuesday that more than 10,000 people, including more than 560 children, have been killed and more than 18,500 injured since the Russian invasion.

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine noted that the real figure was likely to be “significantly” higher, given the complications of verifying deaths.