Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has survived three assassination attempts since the Russian invasion began last week, reports have said. The plots were foiled after Ukrainian officials were alerted about them, according to The Times.
According to The Times, mercenaries from Wagner group, who are sponsored by the Russian government and Chechen special forces were both sent to kill the Ukrainian president since Russia’s invasion began last week.
But the assassins were foiled by saboteur anti-war members within Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) – who alerted Ukraine officials, The Times reported.
Ukraine Secretary of National Security and Defense confirmed the three assassination attempts and told local press that he had received information from the double agents ‘who do not want to take part in this bloody war.’
One of the groups that reportedly tried to kill Zelenskyy, 44, was the Wagner Group – which has 400 members located in Kyiv as members infiltrated Ukraine with a 24-name ‘kill list.’ If the attempt had been successful, Russian President Vladimir Putin would have been able to deny any involvement in the killing plot.
‘They would be going in there with a very high-profile mission, something that the Russians would want to be deniable — a decapitation of a head of state is a huge mission,’ a source told the Times.
‘In terms of the impact on Russian sovereign policy, this would be perhaps their biggest mission so far. It would have a major impact on the war.’
The assassins were flown in five weeks ago and were offered a huge sum for the mission. The hit list included Ukraine’s prime minister, the entire cabinet, mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko and his brother Wladimir – both boxing champions .
The plan was sabotaged after they reached the upper echelons of the Ukrainian government on Saturday morning, prompting Kyiv authorities to declare a 36-hour curfew, ordering everyone indoors so that soldiers could attack any Russian saboteurs, the report adds .
Last week, the US offered to evacuate Zelenskyy, who then told Biden he ‘needed ammunition, not a ride’ despite Ukraine facing several bomb threats and a potential nuclear war.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a Ukrainian politician, former actor and comedian who is the sixth and current president of Ukraine. Zelenskyy grew up as a native Russian speaker in Kryvyi Rih, a major city in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast of central Ukraine.