(Presidentialwire.com)- Russia would have already assassinated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a Kremlin propagandist claimed on state television.
The remarks were made by Andrey Gurulyov, a former military leader and member of the Russian parliament, during a debate about a narrative in the upcoming book The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House by journalist Chris Whipple.
According to the book, CIA Director Bill Burns went to Kyiv before Russia invaded Ukraine last February to alert Zelensky to a Russian assassination plot. According to a book extract published by The Independent, the Ukrainian president was informed of “specific details of the Russian plots…he was caught aback, sobered by this revelation.”
Zelensky has reportedly survived more than 12 such attempts on his life by Russian forces since the start of the war, according to Ukrainian officials. Two of those attempts, according to Whipple, were thwarted by U.S. intelligence tipoffs.
Olga Skabaeeva, the anchor, questioned Gurulyov about the story in the Whipple book in front of a screen that displayed an article from The Independent.
During a program on Russia-1, a state TV channel, he added that if a nail had to be hammered into Zelensky’s coffin, “it would have been done a long time ago, I guarantee you.” He said no such objective or goal was established, and the proof of this is that Zelensky is still alive.
“Additionally, the CIA is free to divulge information for as long as they like. For losers only,” he said.
Anton Gerashchenko, a Ukrainian internal affairs advisor, tweeted the video. Gurulyov said, “If we genuinely wanted to murder Zelensky, we would have done so a long time ago,” which is what he wrote.
Newsweek has approached the foreign ministry of Ukraine for comment.
Between 2016 to 2019, Gurulyov served as the Southern Military District’s deputy commander. He has criticized the Russia-1 program as incendiary.
He has demanded that Western nations that back Ukraine be attacked with nuclear weapons. In reaction to the U.K.’s military support for Ukraine, he cautioned Russia in September that it might transform the country into a “Martian desert.”
The news and politics talk show 60 Minutes on Russia-1 frequently features people who make threats against the West, Ukraine, and Zelensky. Zelensky “and his entourage should be the first to jump into the gallows,” Russian parliament member and former spy Andrei Lugovoi said on the program in November, adding, “we have to follow them all over the world.”
British authorities are looking for Lugovoi in connection with the 2006 murder of former spy Alexander Litvinenko in London.
