MOSCOW, November 21. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky alleged that Russia was planning to conduct an operation that he termed Maidan 3 to topple him.

"The name of operation is Maidan 3. It is meant to change the president," he said in an interview with The Sun. "Maybe it’s not by killing. I mean it’s changing. They will use any instruments they have. So that’s the idea, to the end of the year," he added.

This has been the second time in less than a week that Zelensky has told Western media that a third "Maidan" is being plotted against him. He first said that such information had been coming from Ukrainian intelligence and Western allies at a meeting with foreign reporters on November 17.

Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said that Zelensky was clinging to power as he fears for his future, thus making another "Maidan" all but inevitable. There have lately been reports about the internal political strife in Ukraine in Ukrainian media. In particular, Zelensky reportedly has differences with Ukraine’s top brass, including the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, General Valery Zaluzhny. Earlier, in his article for The Economist, Zaluzhny actually criticized Kiev’s strategy of an offensive.