Zelenskyy says Russia has tried to kill him so many times, he's lost count

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he's survived a slew of Russian assassination attempts.
• Zelenskyy told The Sun that there's been so many attempts on his life that he's lost count.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that Russian forces have tried to assassinate him so many times since the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago that he's lost count.

Zelenskyy, in a new exclusive interview with British newspaper The Sun, estimated that Ukraine's intelligence services have thwarted at least "five or six" schemes to kill him.

When asked exactly how many times he has survived Russian efforts to have him assassinated, Zelenskyy said, "I really don't know."

The Ukrainian president compared the alleged slew of attempts on his life after the first one to having a bout of COVID-19.

"The first one is very interesting, when it is the first time, and after that it is just like COVID," Zelenskyy told the news outlet while speaking at his Kyiv headquarters. "First of all people don't know what to do with it and it's looking very scary."

He added, "And then after that, it is just intelligence sharing with you detail that one more group came to Ukraine to [attempt] this."

Russian President Vladimir Putin unleashed his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and the bloody war continues to grind on.

Zelenskyy told The Sun that even now Russia still aims to have him overthrown and claimed that the codename of the mission to unseat him from power is called "Maidan 3." Zelenskyy said the deadline for that alleged operation is the end of this year.

"It is meant to change the president," Zelenskyy said of the alleged mission. "It's bye bye. Maybe it's not by killing. I mean it's changing. They will use any instruments they have."