At a briefing on Tuesday, top Ukrainian official Oleksiy Danilov announced that authorities thwarted an assassination attempt against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a Telegram post from the country's authorities revealed.
Danilov alleged that the Kadyrovites, a Chechen paramilitary group loyal to the region's leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, were responsible for carrying out the plot.
"We are well aware of the special operation that was to take place directly by the Kadyrovites to eliminate our president," Danilov said. He added that the death squad was split in two, where one was destroyed in the town of Hostomel, and the other is currently "under fire."
Danilov claimed that members of Russia's Federal Security Service who are apathetic about Putin's decision to invade the country informed them of the plot.
The news follows assertions by Zelenskyy on Monday that Russian mercenaries are operating in Kyiv with orders directly from the Kremlin to assassinate him, according to The Times of London.
In January, the Wagner Group, a private army with ties to Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, sent around 3,000 mercenaries to Ukraine. Around 400 of them were deployed to Kyiv, while others were sent to the pro-Russian separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, Insider reported.
Zelenskyy had also said on Thursday that he was the "number one target" OF Russian assassins and that "enemy sabotage groups" were present in Kyiv.
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