Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has accused the United States of financing unsuccessful Ukrainian attempts to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Zakharova says that these attacks were orchestrated using American funds, according to Lenta.
Crucial Financing
Zakharova emphasized that without U.S. financial support, there would be no “malicious activities” from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GUR MO), the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), or the administration located on Bankova Street in Kyiv, where the official residence of the Ukrainian president is situated.
"Yesterday, one of the leaders of the Kyiv regime openly admitted that Ukrainian intelligence was preparing an assassination attempt on the President of Russia. This assassination attempt was, again, funded by American money," stated Zakharova.
Admits Attempts
On Saturday, July 13, Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the GUR MO of Ukraine, who is listed as a terrorist and extremist by Rosfinmonitoring, revealed that Kyiv had planned attempts on the Russian leader's life. He noted that all attempts were unsuccessful but did not provide specific details.
Following Budanov's statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov assured that the security of the Russian president is maintained at a high level. He assessed the measures in place to protect Putin and confirmed their adequacy.
The revelation has elicited various reactions within Russia.
Why Admit it?
Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, Andrei Klimov, suggested that if Kyiv had the capability to carry out such a crime, it would have done so without hesitation.
Klimov questioned why Ukrainian intelligence chose to publicize their assassination attempts at this moment.
He speculated, "I don't think they are naive enough to believe they can intimidate our head of state in this way. Clearly, they are signaling something to someone."
Klimov further described Budanov's statement as resembling state terrorism, employing intimidation through threats. He concluded that Russian special services would draw the necessary conclusions from these declarations.
