More deadly Wagner mercenaries have entered Ukraine to ASSASSINATE president Zelenskyy
A new group of militants has entered Ukraine in another attempt to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his right-hand men, the nation's military said on Sunday, March 20. The elite group of shadowy Russian mercenaries is hunting down Zelenskyy, 44, who has always maintained he is Russia’s number one target. His family is second.
“Another group of militants connected with Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian propagandist close to Putin and owner of [Wagner], began arriving in Ukraine today,” Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense tweeted. “The main task of criminals is to eliminate the top military and political leadership of Ukraine."
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Earlier this month, one of Zelenskyy's key advisers said the president reportedly survived more than a dozen assassination attempts, some of which were tied to Wagner, the Kremlin-backed private paramilitary outfit, run by an oligarch known as “Putin’s chef". The Wagner Group, also known as Liga, has an estimated 6,000 members. It emerged during previous conflicts with Ukraine in 2014. The group was also allegedly involved in widespread rapes and robberies of civilians in the Central African Republic. It was linked to the mutilation and beheading of a Syrian army deserter in 2017.
Columbia University’s Kimberly Marten previously testified to Congress that despie claiming that it is a private company, it “gives the Russian state plausible deniability for state-supported actions." Prigozhin has denied all connections but is wanted by the FBI.
Back in February, Zelenskyy was urged to surrender after he declared that he will remain in Kyiv despite being "target number one" for Russian assassins who have stormed the capital. The 44-year-old president announced he was "staying" with his people despite being at the top of Putin's kill list. Some of his supporters were worried for his safety and wanted him to surrender as he was being hunted by Russian special forces who have a list of Ukrainian officials to capture or kill.
Concerns that Zelenskyy may be assassinated and replaced by a Putin puppet emerged after the former won a stunning landslide victory in Ukraine's presidential election despite having no political background but a promising career as a comedian and actor. Zelenskyy's only previous political role was in the local TV show 'Servant of the People', in which he played a history teacher who is unintentionally elected as the President of Ukraine after a video of his character going on an anti-corruption rant goes viral.
Meanwhile, head of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov announced last month that a unit of Chechen special forces sent on a mission to assassinate Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been "eliminated". Danilov said that Ukraine received intelligence on the assassination attempt from the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) agents. "And I can say that we received information from representatives of the FSB, who today have no desire to take part in this bloody war," he said.
The special unit belonged to a Chechen paramilitary organization, the Kadyrovites, which was helping Russian forces in its Ukraine invasion. "The special operation that was to be carried out directly by the Kadyrovites to eliminate our president is fully known to us today," Danilov said.