According to accounts, since the Russian invasion began last week, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has escaped three murder attempts. According to The New York Times, the schemes were discovered when Ukrainian officials were notified.
According to rumours, the Wagner group and Chechen insurgents were dispatched to assassinate Ukraine’s president.
According to The Washington Post, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) warned the Ukrainians about a squad of Kadyrovites, or elite Chechen special forces, dispatched to assassinate Zelensky. According to the report, these units were “destroyed,” according to Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.
He went on to say that on Saturday, Chechen special troops were murdered on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. “And I can say that we have gotten information from the FSB, which today does not want to participate in this terrible fight,” Danilov told The Washington Post.
The intelligence originated from anti-war activists within the FSB, according to the Times.
Meanwhile, the Times said that Wagner mercenaries were frightened by the Ukrainians’ accuracy in anticipating their manoeuvres.
It did not name the source of the information, but it did say that the high-ranking official thought Zelensky’s security team appeared to be “eerie” well-briefed.
At the onset of the war in Ukraine, the US offered to evacuate Zelensky, but he turned it down. Instead, he elected to stay in Kyiv, despite the Russian bombardment, in close quarters with his security team and closest aides.
Several countries, including France, have applauded his choice. President Emmanuel Macron described Zelensky as “the face of dignity, freedom, and courage” in his state of the nation address.
Zelensky has expressed concern that he will be the first target of the Russian invasion, but on Thursday he also urged for dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin as the best way to end the war.
“If somebody believes… Ukraine will succumb, he understands nothing about Ukraine and has nothing to do with Ukraine,” Zelensky stated in an apparent message to Putin in his most recent video address.
