MOSCOW, May 20. /TASS/. Those who disapprove of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s policy may try to kill him like Wehrmacht officers tried to assassinate Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler in 1944, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev told TASS.
He did not rule out that after Zelensky’s office term expires on May 21 there might be "unrest in some social strata, which will be brutally suppressed." He believes an assassination attempt on Zelensky in the mold of "of the assassination attempt on Hitler staged by Stauffenberg in July 1944," is within the realm of possibility. "Especially if some of Ukraine’s dissatisfied oligarchs decide to remove the crazy comedian and replace him with a more loyal figure," he said.
"However, it will change nothing either for the Ukrainians or for us," he stressed. "Except perhaps if another comedian not bound by a personal ban on talks with Russia appears."
Zelensky’s office term expires on May 21. The presidential election in Ukraine was originally scheduled for March but was postponed under the pretext of martial law.
In October 2022, Zelensky signed a decree banning any talks with Russia while Vladimir Putin is its president. Meanwhile, Moscow has been stressing that it has never refused from talks with Kiev and has always supported constructive dialogue proposals.
The failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944 is known as Operation Valkyrie. It was organized by top-ranking Wehrmacht officers led by Colonel Klaus von Stauffenberg. The German resistance’s plan failed because the meeting of the German command was not held in a bunker as the plotters had expected. Moreover, one of the two bombs did not detonate. Hitler survived but suffered a perforated eardrum and burns. The failed assassination attempt was followed by purges in the German army, when around 200 officers were either executed or died in prison.