Russia pleaded with US to stop Ukraine's Putin assassination attempt over fears of WW3

"A panicked Russia contacted the United States over fears Ukraine was about to assassinate Vladimir Putin at a military parade last month, it has emerged.Putin and defence minister Andrei Belousov had appeared at Russia's Navy Day parade in the country's second city, St Petersburg, on July 28 - but Moscow claims it unearthed a covert Ukrainian plot to eliminate both of them. Russia's deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said his country was so worried about the plot on Putin that Belousov himself got in touch with US defence secretary Lloyd Austin to discuss whether the US was involved. Ryabkov, speaking on Russian channel Rossiya-1, labelled the plot "madness" - and warned any US-backed attempt on Putin's life would have dire consequences.
The deputy foreign minister cautioned that killing Russia's 71-year-old premier would spark an "uncontrollable conflict", raising the spectre of an all-out nuclear Third World War." GBN