Mercenaries are believed to have been briefed back in December.
Amidst
continued conflict in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky has reportedly survived three assassination attempts in the last week.
Mercenaries from the Kremlin-backed Wagner group were allegedly sent to kill the Ukrainian President alongside Chechen special forces, reports the
Mail Online.
It's believed that the assassins were thwarted by anti-war members within Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), which succeeded the KGB in 1991.
The members are believed to have alerted Ukrainian officials to the plot from behind enemy lines, according to
The UK Times.
The Ukraine Secretary of National Security and Defence confirmed the three assassination attempts while adding that the leak was indeed from double agents "who do not want to take part in this bloody war".
The Wagner Group currently has around 400 operatives in Kyiv with a 42-name "kill list" that clearly includes the 44-year-old President.
Other names believed to be on the list include the entire Ukrainian cabinet, Mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko and his brother Wladimir.
The mercenary group is headed by Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is allegedly nicknamed "Putin's Chef."
Prigozhin was flown into Moscow over a month ago and is reportedly being heavily compensated for the mission.
"They would be going in there with a very high-profile mission, something that the Russians would want to be deniable — a decapitation of a head of state is a huge mission," a source told The Times, adding that between 2,000 and 4,000 Wagner soldiers entered Ukraine in January.
However Putin's immediate plans were reportedly told to mercenary groups way back in December, with opposing generals executed for treason, according to claims.
They continued:
"In terms of the impact on Russian sovereign policy, this would be perhaps their biggest mission so far. It would have a major impact on the war."
One assassination attempt was foiled after the Ukrainian government declared a 36-hour "hard curfew" on Saturday so that they could sweep the city for foreign operatives.
Citizens were warned that coming outside would result in them being "liquidated" as soldiers may confuse them for Russian forces.
The Wagner Group are believed to be tracking Zelenskyy and his colleagues via their phones, with the source believing they know where their targets are at all times.
On March 1, a Chechen hit team overseen by Ramzan Kadyrov also attempted to take out the Ukrainian leader, reports
FOX News.
General Sir Richard Barrons, a former commander of Joint Forces Command, told the
Mail Online: "They are very effective because they are hard to pin down.
"They can appear from the shadows, do very violent things and then disappear again, without it being obvious who was responsible. They are not directly linked to the Russian government and therefore they are plausibly deniable."
Sources told The Times the militia were briefed about Putin's plans on Ukraine back in December, long before the Russian army was told.
