Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

CIA director warned Zelensky of assassination threat at secret meeting before Russia invasion, book claims

Author Chris Whipple revealed the warning in his forthcoming book “The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House”

Andrew Feinberg
Monday 16 January 2023 15:45 GMT
Comments
Related: Advisor claims Ukraine’s president Zelensky has survived a dozen assassination attempts

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The director of the Central Intelligence Agency travelled to Kyiv before the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine in order to inform Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of a Russian plan to assassinate him.

In his forthcoming book, The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden's White House, author Chris Whipple reports that at the same time Mr Zelensky was publicly dismissive of warnings from US officials that Moscow would soon launch the largest land invasion since the end of the Second World War, he was getting a clandestine briefing from CIA Director Bill Burns about the threat on his life.

Mr Zelensky’s attitude towards the US warnings, which were quite unusual because American officials rarely share intelligence publicly in the way the Biden administration began routinely disclosing Russian plans to reporters and foreign governments, was to push back on them and suggest the US was risking panic and negative effects on the Ukrainian economy.

But in a copy of his book obtained by The Independent, Mr Whipple said Mr Burns went to Kyiv “to give him a reality check”.

He said Mr Biden tasked the CIA director — a former US Ambassador to Russia — with providing Mr Zelensky with “precise details of the Russian plots”.

"This immediately got Zelensky's attention; he was taken aback, sobered by this news,” he wrote.

Ukrainian officials say Mr Zelensky has survived more than 12 separate attempts on his life by Russian forces since the war began last February.

According to Mr Whipple, at least two of those success stories were thanks to US intelligence shared by Mr Burns during that visit to Kyiv.

"The intelligence was so detailed that it would help Zelensky's security forces thwart two separate Russian attempts on his life," he wrote.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in