Medvedev Urges Trump to Have Officials ‘Take Care of’ Zelensky

Dmitry Medvedev urged U.S. President Donald Trump to have senior American officials “take care of” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, using language interpreted as implying his killing. Medvedev did not explicitly use the word assassination in the reported post, which named the U.S. secretary of war and CIA director and said the means were irrelevant. Medvedev, a former Russian president and current deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, made the remarks on the Russian social media platform Max. He invoked American history and told Trump to summon the two officials and address what he called an “unfortunate little problem.” The statement was part of a series of accusations Medvedev directed at Zelensky. He alleged that the Ukrainian leader had ignored Trump’s demands, rejected proposals to negotiate an end to the war and turned American and European leaders against the U.S. president. Medvedev also claimed Zelensky had damaged Trump’s interests more than disputes involving Iran, Cuba and Venezuela combined. Those claims were Medvedev’s assertions and were not independently established in the reporting. His other accusations included claims about Ukraine’s attacks...