‘Zelenski survived three assassination attempts, plans foiled by double agents’ | Abroad

Mercenaries from the infamous Wagner Group and special forces from Chechnya are said to have been sent to Ukraine last week to kill Zelensky. However, the assassination plans were foiled by members of the Russian secret service FSB who oppose the invasion of Ukraine, it said. The Times† Oleksiy Danilov, head of Ukraine’s National Security Council, confirmed the existence of the three assassination plans in local media, and said he had received information about them from “double agents at the FSB who do not want to be part of this bloody war.”

The Wagner Group — essentially an entire army that can be hired — is run by oligarch Yevgeni Prigozhin, a close ally of the Russian president nicknamed “Putin’s cook.” The company would be in Kiev according to The Times They have 400 mercenaries, who are said to have infiltrated the city as civilians at the start of the Russian invasion. The mercenaries would have been given a death list with 24 names on it: in addition to Zelensky, it would also contain the Klitchko brothers, the former top boxers of whom Vitali is currently mayor of Kiev. Since the Wagner Group has no official ties to the Russian government, President Putin could then deny any murder.

Plans foiled

Unconfirmed reports of the threat posed by the assassination squads have been circulating for several days. The mercenaries would track Zelensky and their other targets via their cellphones, always knowing where they were. Immediately after the raid, they would have waited for the green light from the Kremlin to complete their death list, but that was foiled on Saturday morning. The Ukrainian government subsequently imposed a 36-hour curfew, allowing Ukrainian soldiers to search the streets of the capital in search of the mercenaries.

On Tuesday, a Chechen assassination squad is said to have planned to carry out a double attack on Zelensky. They were part of the Russian National Guard, and are known for their vicious tactics. Those plans were also foiled, although it is not clear how.

The assassination plans do not seem to upset President Zelensky: he said during a press conference that he was “target number one” of the Russians, but after an American offer to be evacuated, he said that he “does not need a lift, but ammunition.”

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