‘Zelenskyy must be killed’

RUSSIA – An ally of Putin has threatened to kill Volodymyr Zelenskyy and put his body on public display in St Petersburg over an alleged bid by Kyiv to ‘assassinate’ the Russian president. 

Moscow has claimed that Ukraine launched 91 long-range drones at Putin’s State residence on the shores of Lake Valdai, an allegation which has been hotly denied by Kyiv. 

Putin’s Security Council Deputy Dmitry Medvedev issued a direct Kremlin threat to Zelenskyy’s life, writing on X: ‘‘The stinking Kiev b*****d is trying to derail the settlement of the conflict.

 ‘‘He wants war. Well, now at least he’ll have to stay in hiding for the rest of his worthless life.’’

Medvedev later took to Telegram to say: ‘‘I will not write here about his violent death, although right now the Grim Reaper is breathing down the b*****d’s neck.

‘‘It is very important that in the future, after his imminent demise, the green homunculus’s body, preserved in alcohol, be displayed in the Kunstkamera (science museum) in St. Petersburg, where Russian tsars collected freaks for the amusement of their descendants.’’

Ukraine claims the drone threat to the Valdai palace was a hoax to enable Russia to carry on Putin’s war rather than engage with Donald Trump’s peace initiative.

‘I learned about it from President Putin today. I was very angry about it,’ said Trump on the alleged residence attack.

He acknowledged that there may not have been an attack and asked if US intelligence agencies had evidence, said: ‘We’ll find out.’

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov had alleged: ‘On the night of December 28-29, the Kyiv regime launched a terrorist attack using 91 long-range unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on the state residence of the President of the Russian Federation in the Novgorod region.

‘All UAVs were destroyed by the air defence systems of the Russian Armed Forces.’

The Russian defence ministry claimed its forces ‘intercepted’ 41 drones over Novgorod region and another 49 flying towards the Putin residence.

Ukrainian sources dismissed the claims as ‘lies’.