Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky has survived more than a dozen assassination attempts since the beginning of Russia’s invasion, claims his key adviser.
“Our foreign partners are talking about two or three attempts. I believe that there were more than a dozen such attempts,” presidential adviser Mikhail Podolyak told online newspaper Ukrainian Pravda on Wednesday.
“We have a very powerful network of intelligence and counterintelligence, they track it all,” he said, adding that, as a result, would-be assassins are “liquidated on the way”.
My Podolyak added that the risks for the nation’s 44-year-old leader “have not disappeared anywhere” as he backed Mr Zelensky’s earlier claim that he still remains the main target.
“Western intelligence is right to say that the main target for [Vladimir] Putin was Mr Zelensky in terms of attacking the government quarter and trying to kill the country’s key manager.”
Earlier last week, the Times had reported that Mr Zelensky survived three assassination attempts made by Kremlin-backed Wagner mercenary group and Chechen special forces.
Ukraine claims the attempts were thwarted after anti-war FSB agents passed on the intelligence to the country’s officials about plans of the two mercenary groups.
Defiant in the face of the threats, the Ukrainian president on Monday released a video from his office in Kyiv vowing to defeat the invaders.
“You know, we used to say: Monday is a hard day. There is war in the country, so every day is Monday,” the president began.
“And now we are used to the fact that every day and every night are like that."
“I stay here. I stay in Kyiv, on Bankova Street. I am not hiding”, he said. “I’m not hiding and I’m not afraid of anyone. As much as it takes to win this patriotic war of ours.”
Mr Zelensky also winked at the camera in a video released on Tuesday and told Ukrainians that “everything is fine”.
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