‘Putin assured me he wouldn’t kill Zelensky’

Russian President Vladimir Putin promised not to assassinate his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky when he met with former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett last year in the early days of the war.

In that conversation, he recounted details from his well-known trip to Moscow on Shabbat in early March 2022, in an attempt to help broker a peace deal between the two sides.

“We went in absolute secrecy on a decrepit plan from Israel through the Kazakh region… because we couldn’t fly over the black sea. On the way we prayed and made a blessing over the Sabbath wine, it was very emotional,” Bennett said.

They landed in Moscow where it was cold and raining, in what was his first trip to that city, Bennett recalled adding that he was joined by MK Ze’ev Elkin, then the Housing and Construction Minister who is originally from Ukraine and speaks Russian fluently. He had in the past acted as a translator for Netanyahu in his meetings with Putin.

He [Putin] was the nicest person in the world

He was “smart and sharp” and a supporter of the Jews, Bennett recalled.

The one negative moment occurred when he raised with Putin the issue of Zelensky and said that the Ukrainian leader wanted to meet with him.

“He was the nicest person in the world up until then, suddenly he gave me a cold look and said ‘they’re Nazis, they’re warmongers, I won’t meet him,’” Bennett recalled.

“I was surprised by the change in his demeanor,” Bennett said.

During that Sochi meeting, Bennett said he was able to restore some of the Israeli aerial freedom of movement to target Iran in Syria that had become constricted.

“There was friction in recent years against the Russians that had restricted our activities,” Bennett said as he referenced the deconfliction agreement with Moscow established in Syria years before he entered office in June 2021.

The warm connection he opened with Putin in Sochi was shored up by subsequent telephone conversations, Bennett recalled.

Israeli mediation in March 2022 was an idea he initiated Bennett recalled. He contacted Biden, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and explained that he could be a communications “pipeline” between Putin and Zelensky, adding that he also looped Olaf Scholz into that conversation.

"I [Zelensky] am not afraid"

But it was Zelensky, who feared for his life, that requested the Moscow visit, Bennett recalled.

Bennett called Zelensky while he was still in Moscow on his way to the airport from the Kremlin to tell him that he was not under a death threat.

“Are you sure?” Zelensky asked.

“One hundred percent,” Bennett replied. Within hours Zelensky had returned to his office and made a video explaining that he was not afraid, Bennett said.

I'm sitting in my bunker - I don't capitulate

After his return to Israel, he held “talks [on the telephone] back and forth, Putin-Zelensky, Zelensky-Putin” in a “marathon” push that also involved Israel’s National Security Council. Those efforts augmented negotiations going on in Belarus in March, Bennett said.

Putin’s decision not to assassinate Zelensky was essentially a concession with regard to his perceived goal of de-Nazifying Ukraine and he was also willing to back away from his disarmament demand.

Bennett was able to secure a concession from Zelensky that he would back away from wanting to join NATO.

“I was under the impression that they both wanted a cease-fire,” but in the end, he said, negotiations did not halt the hostilities.

Bennett said that at the time he thought he had taken the right stand to visit Moscow and to attempt to mediate an end to the war, but that was ten months ago and in the end, it's unclear what the impact of his efforts were.

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