Ukraine’s Zelenskyy has survived multiple assassination attempts amid Russian war: reports

Ukrainian officials say one attempt by a unit of Kadyrovites out of Chechnya was foiled over the weekend, while a Kremlin-backed mercenary group has allegedly been stopped twice.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has survived at least one assassination attempt since Russia invaded his country over a week ago, according to official accounts, with media reports suggesting he may have dodged two more.

Ukrainian officials have confirmed one of the attempts, which they say was to be carried out by a unit of Kadyrovites, an elite special forces team based in Chechnya that serves the country’s president Ramzan Kadyrov.

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told a media briefing on Tuesday that the plot was foiled last weekend after anti-war agents of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) — the successor to the KGB — tipped the Ukrainians off.

“We are well aware of the special operation that was to take place directly by the Kadyrovites to eliminate our president,” Danilov said.

“I can say that we have received information from the FSB, who today do not want to take part in this bloody war. And thanks to this, I can say that Kadyrov’s elite group was directly destroyed, which came here to eliminate our president.”

The Times of London reported Thursday that two more attempts to kill Zelenskyy have been carried out in recent days by members of the Wagner Group, a private mercenary group whose leader is tied to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Those attempts were also stopped by Ukrainian forces protecting the president, the paper reported, with the mercenary groups suffering losses. A source close to the group told the Times it was “eerie” that Zelenskyy’s security team appeared to anticipate the operations.

Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security shared the article on its Telegram page, and officials have not disputed the report.