CIA director ‘secretly’ met Zelenskyy in Ukraine before Russian invasion, revealed Putin’s plan to kill him. AP.
New Delhi: Ahead of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, 2022, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Bill Burns made a “secret trip” to Kyiv and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to share that “Russians were plotting to assassinate” him.
In his book titled – The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House – noted spy novelist Chris Whipple said when Zelenskyy was informed in January 2022, he had dismissed the idea that Russians would carry out an unproved invasion of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president instead was suggesting America’s public warnings were creating a “panic”.
Notably, mere weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine, Zelenskyy expressed concerns that such warnings would lead to a negative impact on the economy of his country.
In his book which is scheduled to release on 17 January, Whipple said that Burns made a visit to Kyiv to give Zelenskyy a “reality check” and shared that Russian Special Forces were coming for Zelenskyy.
He also said that Joe Biden told Burns “to share precise details of the Russian plots.”
“This immediately got Zelenskyy’s attention; he was taken aback, sobered by this news,” the author wrote.
A month after Burns visit, Russia began ‘special military operation’. Since then, officials in Ukraine have spoken about Zelenskyy surviving more than a dozen Russian assassination attempts.
In his book, Whipple gives readers a glimpse of how stakes were laid out to Zelenskyy as he attempted to push back on US warnings about the invasion.
“The intelligence was so detailed that it would help Zelenskyy’s security forces thwart two separate Russian attempts on his life,” he wrote.
Burns had also shared a “blueprint of Vladimir Putin’s invasion plan” during his visit to Zelenskyy’s office to gear up for a “possible invasion”
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