Ukraine says its armed forces have foiled an assassination plot against President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Chairman of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksi Danilov claimed at a briefing on March 1, Ukraine’s military has foiled an assassination attempt against the country’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Ukrainian officials say that an elite Chechen special forces unit known as the Kadyrovtsy was involved in the plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky but was disrupted by the Ukrainian Army.
After Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine, President Zelensky once said that he was “Russia’s top assassination target”, and warned that “sabotage groups” were present in the capital Kiev to “hunt” for himself and his family members.
“We are well aware of the special operation directly carried out by Kadyrovite forces to remove our president,” said Oleksiy Danilo, director of Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council.
According to Danilov, employees of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), who do not support the current military operation, have informed the Ukrainian authorities about this plot.
Mr. Danilov said the group of Kadyrovites behind the assassination plot was divided into two teams – one was destroyed in Gostomel and the other was “under fire”.
News of the plot to assassinate President Zelensky was announced on the sixth day of the “special military operation” in Ukraine that began last week, launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Moscow’s military forces have attacked many cities in Ukraine but are facing fierce resistance from the Ukrainian Army as well as local defense units.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ignored condemnation as well as new international sanctions to trigger the largest land war in Europe since World War Two.