Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has survived a third assassination attempt by a Kremlin-funded elite hit squad, Ukrainian officials said, The Daily Beast reports.
The Russia-backed Wagner group mercenaries —run by Yevgeny Prigozhin A.K.A. “Putin’s chef”— and Chechen Republic leader Ramzan Akhmadovich Kadyrov’s kill teams have reportedly tried to assassinate the Ukrainian president, who is running the resistance from various bunkers deep below the capital Kyiv, according to The Washington Post.
The Daily Beast highlighted a report by Times of London claiming that the Wagner mercenaries reportedly have a kill list of 24 names, including Zelensky, but “were waylaid by the stalled military convoy outside of Kyiv that made it difficult for Russian special forces to secure an escape route.”
The third assassination attempt was foiled after double agents from Russia’s Federal Security Service or FSB warned Ukrainian officials about the plot, national security chief Oleksiy Danilov told a Ukrainian television network.
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“I can say that we have received information from the FSB, who do not want to take part in this bloody war. And thanks to this, the Kadyrov elite group was destroyed, which came here to eliminate our president,” Danilov said, according to The Daily Beast.
Zelensky has emerged as a global hero amid Putin’s brutal assault on Ukraine.
As noted by The Beast, “Zelensky’s stoic resistance has lofted him to cult status, undoubtedly angering Putin whose inferiority complex seems to be tipping towards psychosis. Zelensky is now even pleading to Putin to meet face-to-face— which may seem like a death wish—but which is unlikely to happen. “I don’t bite,” Zelensky said in a statement to Putin. “What are you afraid of?”
Read the full report on The Daily Beast.
