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No one planned to attack Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in Odessa city, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said on March 7.
The remarks came a day after an explosion rocked the port city near the motorcade of Zelensky and his guest, visiting Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Mitsotakis said the delegations were getting into their vehicles when they heard the blast, which he called a “vivid reminder” that Odessa is gripped by the war with Russia. It is one thing to hear about the war and “quite another to experience war firsthand,” the prime minister said.
Zelensky later said that the explosion caused an unknown number of dead and wounded, without providing any further details.
Ukrainian media said that the explosion was caused by a Russian missile strike. However, this was not officially confirmed by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
“Everything here is obvious to everyone. Both that there was no attack on the motorcade in Odessa, and [moreover] that if a target had been set, they [Russian forces] would have hit it,” Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel, commenting on the explosion.
“But it’s still somehow a pity,” the official said. “It’s a pity that it [the missile] was precisely launched in a pre-planned place,” he added.
Medvedev concluded his post with the Latin proverb: “Nullum malum sine aliquo bono,” which translates to “there is, in fact, no evil without some good.”
The Kiev regime claims that Zelensky has survived several assassination attempts since the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine more than two years ago. Nevertheless, no evidence backing these claims was ever presented to the public.
Last year, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett revealed in an interview that he was assured by President Vladmier Putin in the early weeks of the special military operation that Russia was not planning to target Zelensky. The Ukrainian president quickly came out from his hideout after being informed of this by Bennett.
