Remember when Zelensky revealed how many assassination attempts he has survived?

Volodymyr Zelensky has allegedly been the target of several assassination attempts since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine. However, the world didn't learn the reality about how many attempts were made on Zelensky's life until he revealed the number in November 2023.

Zelensky sat down for an interview with The Sun's Jerome Starkey and explained how many times someone has tried to kill him since the war began. But the answer wasn't what Starkey was probably expecting. 

Photo Credit: Instagram @jeromestarkey

President Zelensky told Starkey that he didn’t actually know the total number of times Putin tried to have him killed but said that it was no less than at least five or six since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.

Zelensky didn’t seem too phased while discussing the attempts on his life and injected a little levity into the conversation when he began to compare the many failed attempts on his life to the dwindling threat of catching the coronavirus. 

“The first one is very interesting, when it is the first time, and after that, it is just like Covid,” Zelensky explained to Starkey according to a transcript of his remarks published by NBC News. 

The embattled Ukrainian war leader went on to explain how he viewed the threat of being assassinated, saying that at first "people don’t know what to do with it and it’s looking very scary" before adding that eventually "it is just intelligence sharing with you — details that one more group came to Ukraine to [attempt] this.”

Zelensky didn't provide any more details about the attempts on his life but The Sun did report that a group of Russian special forces had parachuted into Kyiv on the first day of the war with orders to kill Zelensky.

The Ukrainian President's bodyguards allegedly sealed off his office with plywood barricades, and it was in this chaotic climate that Zelensky was eventually offered a ride out of Kyiv. Instead of leaving, Zelensky uttered his now famous quote: "I need ammo, not a ride.”

Verifiable details on how many times Russia has tried to have Zelensky killed are scant but Mykhailo Podolyak, the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, explained to the Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda on March 9th, 2022 that Zelensky had survived more than ten attempts on his life.

“I believe that there have been more than a dozen such attempts. Because we’re constantly receiving intelligence that there are some sabotage and reconnaissance groups trying to enter the government quarter," Podolyak said according to a translation from the New Voice of Ukraine.

“Because of security, I can’t talk about certain things,” Podolyak added at the time. “These risks have not disappeared. Western intelligence is right that Mr. Zelensky was the main target for Putin in terms of attacking the government quarter and trying to assassinate the country’s key leader.”

It had been nearly two years since Russian forces crossed the border into Ukraine and Zelensky still believed that Putin wanted him dead. During his interview with The Sun, Zelensky brought up Russia's most recent plan to push him from power, an operation he claimed was called Maidan 3.

“The name of the operation is Maidan 3,” Zelensky explained. “It is meant to change the president. It’s bye-bye. Maybe it is not by killing. I mean it’s changing. They will use any instruments they have," Zelensky continued, hinting Russia may have lowered its aim of killing him to just ousting him from power. 

Zelensky's interview with Jerome Starkey wasn't the first time that he talked publicly about Russia's Maidan 3 plan. During an interview with Bloomberg on November 16th, Zelensky revealed the existence of Maidan 3 and explained what it was. 

Zelensky claimed that Moscow was hoping to sow division and chaos in Ukrainian society with the ultimate goal of having the turmoil stirred up to remove him from power. This was based on intelligence that Zelensky said came from Ukraine's "partners."

However, Kyiv has been far more successful at fomenting chaos through alleged assassinations in Russia over the course of the war than Moscow has been at stirring up societal trouble in Ukraine, and this was something that Starkey asked Zelensky about in his interview with The Sun.

When asked if Ukraine had a hand in the assassinations of pro-Kremlin figures taking place in Russia, Zelensky refused to comment saying: “I can’t discuss with you any special operations of Ukrainian intelligence or Secret Service or of some special forces.”

“There are some moments which we are not discussing,” Zelensky said. “Not only inside Russia, there are things we are not discussing on our temporarily occupied territories,” a hint that maybe Kyiv was responsible for a string of recent assassinations. 

Starkey also asked Zelensky if he would have Putin killed if given the opportunity, to which Zelensky simply stated: “That’s war, and Ukraine has all the rights to defend our land.”

The Kremlin responded to Zelensky’s remarks shortly after his interview was made public, and Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov explained that there had been many "verbal attempts on Putin's life many times from Ukraine" according to Newsweek. 

“We are well aware of this. And they will not succeed in anything," Peskov told a group of reporters at the time, adding: "We have no doubt that all the goals and objectives of the special military operation will be achieved.”

Starkey and Zelensky discussed a wide range of other topics, including the military aid holdups in Congress at the time, the other major global conflict unfolding in the Middle East, and Zelensky’s thoughts on the children deported to Russia from Ukraine. 

In July 2023, Zelensky sat down with CNN journalist Erin Burnett about the assassination attempts on his life and told her that threats on his life didn't bother him. “I’ll be honest with you, if I were thinking about it constantly I would just shut myself down, very much like Putin now who doesn’t leave his bunker," Zelensky told Burnett.

“You can put yourself in a cage like an animal and chain yourself there, constantly thinking that you are just about to get killed," Zelensky added. "Of course, my bodyguards should think how to prevent this from happening, and this is their task. I don’t think about it.”