On the first day of the battle, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he and his family were on the verge of being abducted or killed by Russian forces when special forces deployed by Moscow attempted to breach the presidential complex in Kyiv. Mr. Zelensky told Time magazine reporter Simon Shuster, who spent a week in the presidential palace, that Russian forces almost spotted him when they sought to capture the capital during a predawn assault on February 24.
Mr. Zelensky said that the Ukrainian military warned him that Russian attack squads had parachuted into Kyiv to murder or abduct him, his wife, and their children. He said that his wife Olena, their 17-year-old daughter, and their nine-year-old son were still within the presidential estate when the explosives went off. “We woke them up,” Mr. Zelensky explained, adding that he and his wife immediately began preparing their children to evacuate while he stayed behind.
“It was rather audible. Over there, there were explosions.”
As darkness struck on the first day of the conflict, gunfights erupted around the government area, according to Mr. Shuster. “Guards within the property turned down the lights and delivered Zelensky and roughly a dozen of his aides Kevlar jackets and assault guns” He claims that Russian forces attempted to raid the compound twice. Mr. Zelensky was provided a way out of Kyiv, but he declined. Andriy Yermak, the president’s chief of staff, told the magazine,
“Before that night, we had only ever seen such things in the movies.”
According to accounts, Mr. Zelensky has narrowly evaded three murder attempts since Russia occupied his country. “We have a very sophisticated network of intelligence and counterintelligence, and they follow everything,” presidential adviser Mikhail Podolyak told Ukrainian Pravda. Infiltration efforts have included would-be assassins who were “liquidated” while attempting to get access to Mr. Zelensky’s government apartments, he claimed last month.
“Our foreign partners are discussing two or three attempts.”
“I assume there were at least a dozen such efforts “Mr. Podolyak added, alluding to an earlier accusation concerning the lower amount” Western intelligence is correct in stating that the major goal for Putin in terms of targeting the government quarter and attempting to murder the country’s chief manager was Mr. Zelensky.”
According to Ukrainian government sources, at least three murder attempts were prevented in the opening weeks of the war when Russian double agents who opposed the war revealed intelligence to Ukraine about two distinct mercenary organizations dispatched to assassinate the president. “I can state that we have got information from (Russia’s Federal Security Service) who do not want to participate in this deadly battle,” Ukraine’s Secretary of National Security and Defence said at the time, according to local TV stations.
Mr. Zelensky is said to be at the top of Vladimir Putin’s kill list. His family, including his wife and children, is also thought to be a high target, as are important Ukrainian government figures. According to the UK daily Times, the secretive Kremlin-backed mercenary Wagner Group was behind at least two of the planned assassination attempts on Mr. Zelensky’s life. If they were or are successful, Moscow may be able to deny direct involvement in the assassination plan in the future.
“They’d be going in with a very high-profile mission, something the Russians would want to deny — a decapitation of a head of state is a massive operation,” a diplomatic source told the newspaper. “In terms of the influence on Russian sovereign policy, this might be their most important mission to yet.” It would have a significant influence on the conflict.”
The United States offered to remove Mr. Zelensky from Kyiv as the siege began, but he rejected. “The war has arrived; I require ammo, not a ride,” he explained.
