A top ally of Vladimir Putin has issued a horrifying warning calling leaders “legitimate military targets”, specifically Volodymyr Zelensky.
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said the Ukrainian President was a target because he is the leader of a country “waging war” with Russia.
He told state-run news agency TASS: “For Russia, the final loss of legitimacy by the pseudo-president of the former Ukraine will not change anything.
“He already heads a political regime hostile to Russia, which is waging war on us. And the leaders of countries waging war are always considered a legitimate military target.”
This also raises concern for the UK, which has been branded a de factor participant in the Russia-Ukraine war by the Russian ambassador to the UK.
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Andrei Kelin told Russia’s Rossiya-24 state TV channel that the UK supplying weapons to Ukraine and sharing real-time intelligence made it a part of the war.
Medvedev was Russia’s president from 2008 to 2012 and regularly made threats of this kind to intimidate the West and Ukraine.
In February, he called for the use of nuclear weapons against the UK, US, Germany, and Ukraine if Russian forces lost the territory they had so far seized during the war.
Medvedev is one of Russia’s most ardent pro-war figureheads and has continued to issue aggressive statements about the war in Ukraine.
Since the full-scale invasion began in 2022, Zelensky has avoided multiple assassination attempts, with the latest one being revealed earlier this month.
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The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reportedly uncovered a network of Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) agents who were planning to assassinate the president and other high-ranking officials.
Medvedev also said Zelensky has “usurped power in the country” for not holding an election in March – the ongoing war being the reason why. Martial law is currently in effect and has been since 2022, which prevents a presidential election from being held.
He said: “He spat on the constitution of his ‘country’, ignored the Constitutional Court and chose not even prorogation, but usurpation of supreme power.
“He used as an excuse a confusing statement by the Ukrainian Parliament on the cancellation of the wartime presidential elections.”
