As the Russian offensive descends on Kiev, the Ukrainian president has escaped three assassination attempts in the past week, according to a report from The
Times
.
Transformed into a warlord, at the head of a country which defends its territory step by step, Volodymyr Zelensky has become for the Kremlin the man to be killed.
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Two armed groups would have the mission.
First, Chechens sent by Ramzan Kadyrov were allegedly commissioned to kill the Ukrainian president.
Dressed in black and armed to the teeth, these men, who are also called "
kadyrovtsy
", in homage to the devotion they have for their leader, are nearly 12,000 to have joined the offensive for the "
denazification
of Ukraine, to use the expression of Vladimir Putin.
A first attempt was reportedly foiled last Saturday in the suburbs of Kiev, before they could reach the Ukrainian president.
Read alsoWhy the arrival in Ukraine of the Chechens of Kadyrov does not reassure anyone
However, they would not be the only ones to have to accomplish this mission.
Wagner's group, a mercenary militia not officially recognized by Russia but close to the Kremlin, is said to have infiltrated the Ukrainian capital six weeks ago.
Numbering 400, the mercenaries hoped to take advantage of the assault on Kiev and the panic generated to assassinate the president and leave under escort of the Spetsnaz, the Russian special forces.
This was without taking into account the Ukrainian resistance and the dissemination of information to the ears of Zelensky's close guard by members of the FSB (ex-KGB) opposed to the invasion, according to the Kiev authorities.
Warned, the president no longer films the streets where he travels, blurs the backgrounds or speaks in unrecognizable places.
For The
Times
, such a military raid could be politically risky.
“
The risk of such an operation would be very high and Wagner would be ready to suffer losses.
[...] Such a task would probably be their biggest operation to date, having already carried out shadowy operations in no less than 12 countries around the world.
»
After the seizure of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Volodymyr Zelensky called on Westerners to "
immediately strengthen sanctions against the nuclear terrorist state
".
Two days earlier, he asked the Europeans to “
prove that they were with Ukraine
”.
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