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According to Ukrainian government officials and news sources, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has survived a number of assassination and kidnapping attempts by Russian or pro-Russian agents during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [1] [2]
In order to achieve a quick victory during the invasion of Ukraine, Russia planned to have groups enter the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and destroy Ukraine's leadership. [3] Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak stated that "Russia's key intention [was] to remove the country's top leadership, create maximum panic, and try to establish its own puppet government". [4]
According to the Ukrainian government, in early February 2022, Russian president Vladimir Putin instructed Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov to eliminate Ukrainian leaders. [5] In early March, Ukraine intelligence said that Chechen commandos sent to assassinate Zelenskyy had been "eliminated", with help from FSB agents sympathetic to Ukraine. [6]
In February 2022, Redut PMC was ordered on a covert mission in the Kyiv region to infiltrate and eliminate the political leadership and the Ukrainian Secret Service, by storming those institutions. [7] More than one thousand fighters entered the Kyiv region for this purpose, [8] however the mission failed due to the Ukrainian government having prior intel regarding the plan, resulting in Redut losing up to 90% of their fighting force. [9]
More than 400 Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group were reported to have been in Kyiv by late February 2022, with orders to assassinate Zelenskyy and destabilise the government enough for Russia to take control. [10]
In August 2023, it was reported that another alleged assassination attempt had been stopped after Ukraine's security service arrested a woman who was suspected of gathering information on Zelenskyy's trip to the Mykolaiv region. [11]
In April 2024, a man was arrested in Poland and was allegedly tasked with collecting information about Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport, which is used by Zelenskyy, alongside possible aid towards Russian intelligence services on an assassination of him. [12]
In May 2024, two Ukrainian colonels were arrested for treason in an alleged plot by the FSB to create a network of agents in an attempt to subdue those close to Zelenskyy and eventually take hostage and kill the President. The arrested colonels were members of the State Security Administration, and three FSB members — Maxim Mishustin, Dmytro Perlin and Oleksiy Korne — were identified as those formulating the plot. Kyrylo Budanov, a Ukrainian general, was reported to be the first to be assassinated in the plan, originally to be carried out prior to Orthodox Easter sunday on May 5. [13] [14]
During the conflict there were conflicting accounts of the number of assassination attempts made against Zelenskyy. Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak referenced the issue while speaking to the Ukrainian Pravda news outlet, saying, "Our foreign partners are talking about two or three attempts. I believe that there were more than a dozen attempts". [15]
In addition, on Saturday, 26 February 2022, an assassination attempt by a group of Chechen mercenaries was prevented on the outskirts of Kyiv with the would be assassins killed. [5]
In early March 2022, the head of Ukraine's National Security Council, Oleksiy Danilov, said that Zelenskyy had survived three assassination attempts in one week. Danilov credited the aid of anti-war intelligence officers within Russia's FSB who shared information with Ukrainian forces about the planned attacks by two groups of assassins from Chechnya. [16]
During an interview with CBS News on 6 March 2022, U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken said that the Ukrainian government had prepared for the potential death of Zelenskyy in the invasion, but would not disclose additional details. [17]
The Security Service of Ukraine is the main internal security agency of the Ukrainian government. Its main duties include counter-intelligence activity and combating organized crime and terrorism. The Constitution of Ukraine defines the SBU as a military formation, and its staff are considered military personnel with ranks. It is subordinated directly under the authority of the president of Ukraine. The SBU also operates its own special forces unit, the Alpha Group.
Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy is a Ukrainian politician and former actor who has been serving as the sixth president of Ukraine since 2019.
Andriy Borysovych Yermak is a Ukrainian film producer who was appointed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy to serve as the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine from 11 February 2020. Yermak is also a member of the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the highest command and control body for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He has been described as Zelensky’s right-hand man and a "real power broker" in Ukraine. In 2024, Time named Yermak to their annual list of 100 most influential people in the world.
Events in the year 2021 in Ukraine.
Mykhailo Mykhailovych Podolyak is a Ukrainian politician, journalist and negotiator, serving as the advisor to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine. In 2022, he became one of the representatives of Ukraine at Russian-Ukrainian peace negotiations during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Chechen Republic, commonly known as Chechnya, is a federal republic of Russia that has been noted in several roles during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Kadyrovite forces have fought alongside the Russian forces, while several Chechen armed volunteer formations are fighting on the Ukrainian side. International observers have noted a number of comparisons between the invasion and the First and Second Chechen Wars.
There have been several rounds of peace talks to halt the Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022–present) and end the Russo-Ukrainian War (2014–present) in an armistice. The first meeting was held four days after the start of the invasion, on 28 February 2022, in Belarus. It concluded without result, with delegations from both sides returning to their capitals for consultations. A second and third round of talks took place on 3 and 7 March 2022, on the Belarus–Ukraine border, in an undisclosed location in the Gomel region of Belarus. A fourth and fifth round of talks were respectively held on 10 and 14 March in Antalya, Turkey.
U-24 is an intergovernmental peacekeeping organization proposed by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy aimed at quickly ending armed conflicts between countries. It was first voiced by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his speech to the U.S. Congress on 16 March 2022.
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on 24 February 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made a number of speeches in multiple formats, including on social media and to foreign legislatures. The speeches have received significant attention, with a number of commentators citing a positive effect on Ukrainian morale and on international support for Ukrainian resistance to the invasion.
Oleksandr Oleksiiovych Pavliuk is a Ukrainian general serving as commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces since 11 February 2024. He was a participant in the war in Donbas and the Ukrainian defense against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 14 February 2023 he was appointed First Deputy Minister of Defense.
Kyrylo Oleksiiovych Budanov is a Ukrainian military leader who has served as the chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine since August 2020. Budanov previously served as the deputy director of one of the departments of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine. He holds the rank of lieutenant general.
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia occupied vast portions of the territory of Ukraine, having already occupied parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts as well as the entire Autonomous Republic of Crimea since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2014. Partisan groups began to be organized in mid-2022. These groups have been involved in intelligence-gathering, sabotage, and assassinations. Much of their activity has taken place in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
In November 2021, top Ukrainian government officials outlined allegations of a plot to overthrow the democratically elected government of Ukraine which was to take place in early December of that year. The coup plot was allegedly orchestrated by Russia. The Russian government denied any involvement. Some months later, Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine, with the toppling of the Ukrainian government being one of its objectives.
Events in the year 2023 in Ukraine.
On 3 May 2023, amidst the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, two explosive drones allegedly targeted the Kremlin in Moscow and were shot down. President Vladimir Putin was not present in the building at the time and no one was injured in the incident.
Estonia and Ukraine established diplomatic relations on 4 January 1992. Relations between the two countries have remained consistently close, largely in part due to shared concerns of any aspirations of the Russian Federation. Estonia is a member of the European Union, which Ukraine applied for in 2022. Both countries are full members of the Council of Europe.
Ukraine's Peace Formula is an initiative and diplomatic platform that Ukraine proposed to the world community to achieve a just conclusion to the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Events in the year 2024 in Ukraine.
Adam Aslanbekovich Osmayev is a Chechen brigadier general active in Ukraine. Born into a prominent Chechen family, Osmayev first acquired notability after being arrested in 2007 and accused of involvement in a plot to assassinate Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. Released three days later, he fled to the United Kingdom and later settled in Ukraine. In 2012, he was further accused of masterminding an attempt to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin. Arrested on charges of carrying explosives and causing property damage, he was not extradited following a recommendation from the European Court of Human Rights which argued that he would face torture if returned to Russia. He was released from Ukrainian prison in 2014 and subsequently joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine, becoming commander of the Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion in 2015.
Chechen fighters loyal to the Kremlin are being betrayed by Russian spies who are leaking their whereabouts to Ukrainian forces, an aide to President Zelensky has claimed. Aleksei Arestovich said that the FSB was 'quietly passing on' information about the movements of Chechen units.
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