Zelensky, Patrushev shared same charter plane on same day, report says

Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the Russian
Federation Security Council, flew to Oman the early morning of Jan. 8 on the
same charter plane that Ukrainian President Zelensky flew to Kyiv in the
evening of the same day, reported on Feb. 12 the Skhemy television program,
which is sponsored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Ukrainian state
television. Zelensky flew to Kyiv on plane number 9H-VJN, the same Bombardier
charter plane that allegedly carried Patrushev from Moscow to Muskat, 19 hours
after Zelensky’s press service announced his urgent return owing to the crash
of Flight 752 in Tehran, the report said. He arrived at Kyiv’s airport in the
early morning of Jan. 9.

In response to the news report, the press secretaries
of both the Russian and Ukrainian presidential administrations rejected on Feb.
14 its credibility. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov offered a
one-word denial, referring to the news report as a lie, while Zelensky’s press
service said it would file a complaint. “The president of Ukraine never in his
life met (personally or in the framework of international events), never spoke
and never communicated in another way with Mykola Patrushev. The President’s
Office of Ukraine is awaiting from the Skhemy program a retraction of the
information that doesn’t reflect reality, and the assumptions made on its
basis. We are appealing to the courts with a complaint in which we are
demanding a retraction and apology,” the statement said.

In response to the President’s Office statement, the
Skhemy editors issued a statement on Feb. 14 stressing the report had not
alleged that Zelensky and Patrushev met, only claiming that they flew on the
same charter plane on the same day. Recall, Zelensky visit to Muskat between
Jan. 5 and 8 in what was officially reported as a personal trip. Yet
journalists sponsored by the Global Investigative Journalism Network discovered that two
charter planes traveled from Moscow to Muskat almost simultaneously on Jan. 8:
the Bombardier charter plane ordered by Zelensky and another owned by Viktor
Medvedchuk, who is widely recognized as Putin’s representative in Ukraine.
Medvedchuk acknowledged that his plane arrived in Muskat in the morning, but
insisted that only his family members were on board, dismissing speculation
that he allowed Russian officials to use it to return to Moscow.

Zenon Zawada: Zelensky’s
mysterious dealings in Muskat are the work of Andriy Yermak, his aide at the
time who has since been promoted to lead the President’s
Office. Yermak has a penchant for arranging informal, tacit
meetings to resolve political problems, and we are confident he is using the
same approach to resolve the armed conflict in Donbas.

Ultimately, however, this scandal won’t affect the
Ukrainian public’s opinion of Zelensky, even if he did meet with some
high-ranking Russian officials (which has yet to be proven). The majority of
the Ukrainian public is ready to forgive Zelensky a slew of political sins if
he’s able to end the warfare in Donbas,
even if it involves significant concessions to Russian interests.