Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Russian President Vladimir Putin promised him "not to eliminate" Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, The Times of Israel reports.

According to him, in early March 2022, during a visit to Moscow, Bennett met with Putin. During the meeting, he asked him about Zelensky.

“After three or four hours from the beginning of the meeting, I ask: “Tell me, are you going to kill him?” He: “I will not kill Zelensky,” he said.

In June 2022, Bennett announced that he was leaving office and withdrawing from politics amid the impending dissolution of the Knesset.

Israeli Foreign Minister and leader of the liberal Yesh Atid party, Yair Lapid, will become the country's prime minister. The right-wing coalition and the New Right party, previously led by Bennett, will be led by Interior Minister Ayelet Sheked.

A parliamentary crisis in the country erupted in June after New Right MPs Idit Silman and Nir Orbak announced their withdrawal from the ruling coalition due to the religious policies of the authorities, which, in their opinion, discriminate against ultra-religious Jews.