Three separate assassination attempts against Ukraine’s president were foiled over the past week, according to a report by The Times . Two teams of assassins were responsible for the three abortive assassination plots, the report claimed, both of which were already linked to Moscow-backed plans to kill not only Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but a number of senior Ukrainian leaders, as well as the mayor of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital city. A senior Ukrainian official said on Tuesday that Ukraine had foiled an assassination attempt against President Zelensky by a Chechen mercenary cell. Earlier , it was reported that hundreds – possibly thousands – of mercenaries from the Wagner Group, a private militia run by an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, had entered Ukraine at the start of the invasion, and had planned to kill Zelensky and other members of the Ukrainian government. According to The Times report, Ukraine’s security apparatus was tipped off about the assassination plots by anti-war elements within Russia’s Federal Security Service. Both the Wagner Group and the Chechen cell suffered casualties during their three cumulative attempts to assassinate Zelensky. One source close to the Wagner Group told The Times it was “eerie” how well-informed Ukraine’s security services were. A 36-hour ‘hard’ curfew imposed on Kyiv – which required residents to remain indoors or be shot on sight – is credited with foiling an assassinate attempt by the Wagner Group last Saturday – the same day the Chechen cell was destroyed before it could carry out its own assassination attempt on Zelesnky.
