US was against Ukraine’s plan to kill Russia’s top general: Report

The United States allegedly sought to dissuade Ukraine’s authorities from trying to kill a senior Russian military general earlier this year, out of fear that the attempt would spark a direct conflict between Moscow and Washington, a report says.

Citing unnamed US officials, the New York Times reported on Saturday Washington learned of the planned visit by Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov to the frontlines in late April.

US officials decided to withhold the information from Ukraine for worries that Kiev’s attempt to kill the general could lead to an escalation.

The Ukrainian military reportedly obtained the information about Gerasimov’s plans anyway, prompting US officials to request Kiev to call off an attack on the Russian general, the Times said. "We told them not to do it," an unnamed senior American official told the paper. "We were like, ‘Hey, that’s too much.’"

However, Ukraine’s military still launched an attack on what it believed was Gerasimov’s position when he was at the front line, the report said, without providing any further information about the alleged strike.

Russia has never officially confirmed Gerasimov's April visit to the frontlines. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the top general visited Russian troops in Ukraine in early July, meeting senior officers, and listened to reports on the military operation as well as combat support from the troops.

The ministry did not mention any Ukrainian attacks targeting the general at that time.

Back in early May, the Times published a report of an alleged Ukrainian strike targeting Gerasimov a week before. Moscow never confirmed this claim.

A senior US defense official also told AFP that Gerasimov has visited the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine in April but reports that he was injured in a Ukrainian attack could not be confirmed.

Russia's war on Ukraine started in late February with Moscow saying it was aimed at defending the pro-Russian population in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk against persecution by Kiev. Ever since the beginning of the war, Ukraine's Western allies, led by the US, have been pumping the ex-Soviet Republic with advanced weapons and slapping Russia with sanctions, steps Moscow says will only prolong the conflict.

So far, Moscow has seized around a fifth of Ukraine's expanse in its south and east. It has conditioned negotiations on a possible end to the military campaign on Ukraine's recognition of Russian rule over the seized territories.

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