A senior ally of Vladimir Putin has urged Donald Trump to authorise the assassination of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Dmitry Medvedev, a prominent Kremlin figure, claimed Zelensky had harmed Trump’s interests more than US actions involving Venezuela, Cuba and Iran combined.
The former Russian president and prime minister now serves as Putin’s deputy on Russia’s Security Council.
Medvedev accused Zelensky of holding a “major grudge” against the US president and behaving “downright disrespectfully” towards the Trump administration.
In an aggressive online tirade, he branded the Ukrainian leader a “festering green parasite” and accused him of “fleecing the Americans for enormous sums of money”.
The remarks came after Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, travelled to St Petersburg and described Putin as a “humanitarian”.
Medvedev’s extraordinary comments, including his suggestion that US intelligence officials should deal with Zelensky, could be interpreted as evidence of growing frustration in the Kremlin over the war in Ukraine.
Former Russian president and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev called for Donald Trump to assassinate Volodymyr Zelensky
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before boarding Air Force One
Addressing the US president, Medvedev wrote: “American history itself offers a solution.
“All he has to do is summon the secretary of war and the CIA director and tell them to take care of this ‘unfortunate little problem.’
“After all, the man does far more damage to Trump’s real interests than all the fallout from Trump’s imaginary grievances against Venezuela, Cuba and Iran combined.
“The how, where and by what means are irrelevant.”
Writing on the pro-Kremlin social media platform Max, he added: “Why, exactly, should the occupant of the Oval Office have any reason to like the twitchy little bloodsucker?”
Medvedev accused Zelensky of “pestering Trump like a fat green fly” while demanding money and weapons to continue the war against Russia. He also alleged that the Ukrainian leader had manipulated Western governments and worked to turn them against Trump and his team.
He further claimed that Zelensky had repeatedly rejected Trump and his aides whenever they proposed negotiations, and that his conduct had pushed the United States and NATO towards a global nuclear confrontation with Russia.
Medvedev said that, “in short, the Kiev scumbag regularly spits straight in the face of the US president”, ignoring Trump’s demands while turning influential Americans and less influential Europeans against him.
“To this festering green parasite, the president of the United States is a nobody,” he wrote.
He continued: “Which doesn’t stop him and his entire Nazi gang from repeatedly fleecing the Americans for enormous sums of money.
“So much for ‘he may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch.’”
It comes after the Kremlin has also accused Ukraine of using British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles and drones to hit a major defence plant in Yelets, Lipestk region, a key manufacturer of batteries and accumulators for missile systems, aviation, and other military equipment.
Thick black smoke was seen pouring from the plant after strikes by three or four missiles.
Thick black smoke was seen pouring from the Russian defence plant after Ukrainian strikes
NEXT UP: Madrid Sheep Festival Reroutes Thousands Around Housing Protest Camp
The Kremlin accused Ukraine of using British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles and drones to hit the major defence plant
The deadly strike, allegedly with Storm Shadow missiles, was on Energia defence plant, which makes chemical-based power sources for multiple Russian weapons including Iskander-M ballistic missiles.
Initial reports said that one person was killed and that early evacuation prevented more deaths.
It is the second successive day the Russians have accused Ukraine of deploying Storm Shadows.
On Saturday, multiple reports said they were deployed against high-tech Proton defence factory in Oryol, which makes components for Russian weapons of death including the Iskander-M, Pantsir-S1 and S-71 Kover missiles.
Russia claimed four were killed, while other reports indicated a higher toll.
Both plants in Yelets and Oryol were sanctioned by Britain and other Western countries.
In separate attacks today long-range Ukrainian drone strikes hit key military-linked plants in Perm in the Urals – a distance of 1,000 miles – and Omsk in Siberia, more than 1,600 miles.
Mr Witkoff also used his meeting in St. Petersburg to thank Putin for freeing Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired American teacher who had been behind bars in Russia since 2022.
Putin also lifted export controls on Russian diesel. Russia announced the move as the envoy arrived, under a deal with Mr Trump that will soon see shipments head to the US.
Thanking the Russian president, Mr Witkoff said: ‘I want to thank you for your decision to remove export controls on diesel oil from Russia and to sell not just to the United States but also to the world at large.
‘I know the President is deeply grateful for it, as are our farmers and other truckers who use diesel and have been adversely affected by this diesel crisis, and people all over the world. So it’s an example of us all working together, and I want to say thank you to you for that.’
Mr Witkoff added that he had brought ‘ideas’ for a possible peace deal with Ukraine, telling Putin: ‘We’ve brought some papers. It’s really some ideas, some sort of peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, and you’ll read that at your leisure.’
Putin thanked Mr Trump for his efforts to resolve the war. The longtime Russian leader has repeatedly refused to hold face-to-face talks with Zelensky and said that Moscow intends to seize the rest of eastern Ukraine.
Mr Witkoff told Putin he hoped trilateral talks could resume.
‘I’m hoping that you might consider that as a next step in the peace process so we can begin to have technical teams discussing what are those next steps,’ he told the Russian leader.
Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomes U.S. President’s special envoy Steve Witkoff before a meeting at the Constantine Palace in Strelna, a suburb of St. Petersburg, Russia
Putin thanked the President for his ‘attention’ to the conflict and said the US leader had ‘insisted that it was necessary to end this conflict’ in their last phone call.
Russia’s war against Ukraine has killed hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides as well as thousands of civilians.
Before he visited Russia, Mr Witkoff met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday in Norway to discuss the conflict with Russia.
Hopes for peace talks were renewed after Zelensky called for a three-way meeting with Mr Trump and Mr Putin.
After a ‘constructive’ meeting with Mr Witkoff, Zelensky said in a press conference that the pair had raised the possibility of holding a trilateral meeting to ‘address the issues that only the leaders can do’.
