Putin Ally Admits Russia's Ultimate Goal Is to Get Rid of Zelensky

Russia's ultimate war goal is to get rid of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former president and prime minister.

Medvedev, now deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, made the remarks in an interview with Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti, and also on his Telegram channel, where he regularly issues nuclear threats against Ukraine.

He has previously called for the elimination of the Ukrainian president, but it is the first time a Russian official has admitted it is a legitimate goal of the Kremlin in its "special military operation"—a term used by Russian President Vladimir Putin for his war in Ukraine.

"What about negotiations in 2024? Everything is quite obvious," Medvedev said, answering a question about war goals for Russia next year. "The special operation will continue, its goal will remain the disarmament of Ukrainian troops and the renunciation of the current Ukrainian state from the ideology of neo-Nazism."

Medvedev was repeating the Kremlin line that Putin's war in Ukraine was launched to "denazify" the country and its leadership. Russia "will strive for the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine," Putin said, when launching his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

"The removal of the ruling Bandera regime is clearly not declared, but the most important and inevitable goal that must and will be achieved," Medvedev added.

Medvedev's derogatory phrase to describe Zelensky's government is a reference to Stepan Bandera, a Ukrainian nationalist who joined forces with the German Nazis during World War II.

Zelensky, who is of Jewish descent, described Russian claims that the Kyiv government is full of neo-Nazis as "laughable" in a CNN interview last year.

Newsweek has contacted the foreign ministries of Ukraine and Russia for comment via email.

In May, Medvedev said that Moscow has no choice but to eliminate Zelensky. That threat came shortly after Moscow accused Ukraine of attempting to assassinate Putin with two drones, which crashed into the Russian president's Kremlin residence.

Zelensky denied any involvement, saying his country didn't possess weapons capable of such strikes.

"After today's terrorist attack, there are no options left aside [from] the physical elimination of Zelensky and his cabal," said Medvedev on his Telegram channel.

The former Russian president also said Zelensky did not need to sign "an instrument of unconditional surrender."

"Hitler, as is known, did not sign it either. There will always be some substitute," Medvedev wrote.

A few months later, in August, Medvedev said on his Telegram channel that Zelensky's administration "should be wiped off the face of the earth."

"Even the ashes from him should remain. This dirt should not have a chance to be reborn under any circumstances," he wrote. "If it takes years and even decades, so be it. We have no other choice: either we will destroy their hostile political regime, or the collective West will eventually tear Russia apart. And in this case, he will die with us."

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