Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin will eventually be killed by a member of his inner circle, The Telegraph reported.
As Russia is hit by increasingly stringent sanctions for invading Ukraine last February, Putin's political rivals will seek to depose him, Zelensky told journalist Dmytro Komarov.
“There will certainly be a moment when the fragility of Putin’s regime is felt in Russia. Then carnivores will eat a carnivore.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
"There will certainly be a moment when the fragility of Putin’s regime is felt in Russia," said Zelensky. "Then carnivores will eat a carnivore. It is very important, and they will need a reason to justify this. They will remember. They will find a reason to kill a killer. Will it work? Yes. When? I don’t know."
Rift between Russian army and the Wagner Group
Although Putin keeps a tight circle of associates, a split has occurred between Wagner mercenaries and the Russian army, which each blames the other for military failures while claiming sole credit for successes.
The Jerusalem Post reported on Thursday that former Russian diplomat to the UN institutions in Geneva Boris Bondarev had said Putin has already lost the war in Ukraine.
"Putin lost everything," he said in an interview with Newsweek. "Everyone must understand that he is not smart. He is not a strategist, he is simply lucky that his colleagues were even more short-sighted than him, but as mentioned he is still short-sighted, even very much so."
"He doesn't think about tomorrow, only about a few more hours in which he can stay in power, he has no plan," Bondarev added.