Ukraine could try to kill Trump, pro-Kremlin opposition politician warns in letter to ex-US prez

If a report in Russia's state-run Tass news agency is to be believed, a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian opposition politician has warned in a letter to Donald Trump that Kyiv is planning to assassinate the US presidential candidate.

This comes days after the failed assassination attempt on the Republican candidate in the presidential election, to be held on November 5.

Who is the opposition politician who warned Trump about Ukraine trying to kill him?

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Viktor Volodymyrovych Medvedchuk, who wrote the letter, is an exiled Ukrainian politician who currently lives in Russia. A personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the oligarch-politician was handed over to Russia as part of a prisoner swap. He was the leader of Platform For Life party, which is now banned in Ukraine. He now leads the Other Ukraine movement, according to Tass.

What did the letter say?

In his letter, Medvedchuk said the reason for Trump being made a target is his calls for peace in Ukraine.

"This peace means the loss of power for [Ukraine President Volodymyr] Zelensky’s Nazi regime and its American sponsors from the [Joe] Biden administration," he claimed in the letter, as cited by Tass on Tuesday (July 16).

"This is why, esteemed Mr Trump, you have become an enemy for Ukrainian neo-Nazi Zelensky. And this scoundrel will stop at nothing to keep you from winning the presidential race," Medvedchuk said in his letter.

He also claimed that a "Ukrainian link may appear" in the recent bid on Trump's life.
To bolster his claim, he pointed out that Ukraine military intelligence chief Kirill Budanov had said that the Ukrainian authorities had tried to assassinate Russian President Putin.

He also pointed out the warning by chief of the Ukrainian presidential office Andrey Yermak that Ukrainians who want to make peace with Russia would be eliminated, the Tass report said.

"Physical elimination of political opponents and political corruption are links in a chain for those who are seeking to stay in power and are profiting from the war in Ukraine by means of selling weapons to Ukrainian neo-Nazis," he wrote in the letter.

"The usurpation of power by Zelensky and his personal interest in continuing hostilities in Ukraine to stay in power may lead to a bigger escalation of the conflict, its territorial expansion and the involvement of third countries, may entail more casualties, new acts of aggression and new threats to the entire world," Medvedchuk claimed.

"This threat can be thwarted when support for Zelensky’s criminal regime is stopped," he added, according to the Tass report.

How significant are claims that Ukraine may try to kill Trump?

It is intriguing because in the recently concluded NATO summit, Ukrainian President Zelensky had urged the US "not to wait till November" to give aid to Ukraine to fight its continuing war with Russia.

It is well-known that President Putin has had generally good relations with Trump when he was president in 2016-2020.

During his campaign rallies, the former US president had said that he could end the Ukraine-Russia war and claimed he was the only one who could prevent a third World War from happening.

Trump has several threats to his life

The claims in the Ukrainian politician's letter comes amid confirmation from US intelligence agencies that Iran was planning to kill Trump.

That plot is unrelated to the failed assassination bid on Trump on 13 July, when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks fired at him during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The former president survived, but a rallygoer was killed.

(With inputs from agencies)