Roving Periscope: Putin survives assassination attempt; Zelensky’s car meets accident
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: They don’t see eye-to-eye ever since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but share something more, apart from their first names. On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin survived an alleged assassination attempt while his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky’s car collided with a passenger’s.
The alleged assassination attempt on Putin came a week after some Russian politicians from St. Petersburg demanded their President’s resignation, citing Russia’s military losses in Ukraine, the media reported.
They appealed to the State Duma to bring charges of state treason against President Putin and strip him of power, citing reasons including Russia’s military reverses in Ukraine and the damage to its economy from ongoing waves of the West-led sanctions.
Several politicians, including 65 municipal representatives from St Petersburg, Moscow, and other regions signed a petition on Monday calling for Putin’s resignation.
According to Euro Weekly News, information about an assassination attempt on Putin was released on the General GVR Telegram channel on Wednesday. It is unclear when the alleged effort took place.
Rumors around Putin’s health and threat to life have been swirling since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Putin had publicly disclosed in 2017 that he had survived at least five assassination attempts.
Reports said the smoking car was quickly driven to safety after the left front wheel of his limousine was hit by a loud bang.
President Putin remained unharmed. Officials had arrested several people, including security personnel, in the case.
The alleged attempt occurred amid security concerns when President Putin was returning to his official residence in a decoy motorcade.
“On the way to the residence, a few kilometers away, the first escort car was blocked by an ambulance, the second escort car drove around without stopping (because of the) sudden obstacle, and during the detour of the obstacle,” according to a report.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s car met with an accident when a passenger car collided with it and his escort vehicles, an official said.
A motorist collided with a vehicle carrying the Ukrainian leader as his motorcade passed through Kyiv, although the President was not seriously injured, his spokesman said early Thursday morning.
“In Kyiv, a passenger car collided with the car of the President of Ukraine and escort vehicles,” spokesperson Sergiy Nikiforov said in a statement posted on Facebook.
“Medics accompanying the President provided the driver of the passenger car with emergency aid and transferred him to an ambulance,” he said.
“The President was examined by a doctor, and no serious injuries were detected. The law enforcement officers will investigate all the circumstances of the accident.”
In his nightly televised address, a video of which was posted shortly after the accident, Zelensky said he had just returned from the area around Kharkiv, adding that “almost the entire region is de-occupied” after a lightning counteroffensive to dislodge Russian troops.
“It was an unprecedented movement of our soldiers — the Ukrainians once again did what many thought was impossible,” Zelensky said.
The nearly seven-month-long ongoing war in Ukraine is entering a decisive phase, with Kyiv’s forces expelling Russian troops from swathes of the east, appearing to seriously challenge the Kremlin’s ambition to capture the entire Donbas region where most of the people are Russian-speaking.
Reports from Ukraine suggested the embattled country, in a counteroffensive, has retrieved over 6,000 square km of area captured by the Russian forces.
