Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi believes that his Russian counterpart, Volodymyr Putin, plans to remove him from the leadership of the country by the end of the year “by any means,” Politico and The Moscow Times reported.

Zelensky said in an interview with British tabloid The Sun on Monday that Russia would use “any means at its disposal,” including assassination, in the so-called “Maidan-3” operation, to replace the Kyiv leader.

In 2022, Zelensky said that Russia’s repeated attempts to kill him reminded him of the famous 1993 film “The Day of the Mole”, in which Bill Murray played the main role.

Zelensky survived multiple assassination attempts, especially in the early days of the war, when Russia planned to seize Kyiv in three days and install a puppet government.

“I survived five assassination attempts on Putin… it’s like COVID-19, it gets easier,” Zelenskyy told The Sun.

Although the Kremlin has given a deadline for his removal “by the end of the year”, Zelenskyi says he no longer takes the threats so seriously, even though he faces them every day.

Kyiv has a plan if Zelensky dies. If the president of Ukraine were killed, according to the country’s constitution, he would be replaced by the speaker of the Ukrainian parliament.

The codename of Operation Maidan 3, which aims to remove Ukraine’s leadership, appears to be a reference to the historic 2014 pro-European Maidan revolution in which protesters ousted Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovych.

10 years ago, on November 21, 2013, thousands of demonstrators gathered on Euromaidan to protest against the then president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, who, under pressure from Moscow, refused to sign the association agreement with the European Union.

Former pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych ruled Ukraine from 2010 until February 2014, when he was ousted by the Orange Revolution.

​