Russia’s assassination attempt on Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has failed, Ukraine claims

“We are well aware of the special operation that had to be carried out directly by the cadres to remove our president. And I can say that we have received information from the FSB, which today does not want to take part in this bloody war, “Danilov said. “And thanks to that, the elite Kadyrov group, which came here to eliminate our president, was destroyed.”

While Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov confirmed in his Telegram channel on Monday that two servicemen had been killed and six others wounded, neither the Chechens nor the Kremlin had publicly responded to Ukraine’s claims that the Kadyrovs had been sent to kill Zelensky and had been eliminated.

The answer to the alleged assassination plot comes as Russian forces continue their deadly attacks on key Ukrainian cities, prompting some local officials to warn on Wednesday that their cities are close to breaking. Kyiv suffered more attacks during the night as Russian forces faced fierce resistance from Ukrainian military and civilian defenders across the country.

Nearly 680,000 Ukrainians fled the country on Tuesday, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, in what could ultimately be “Europe’s biggest refugee crisis of the century.”

In the United States, President Biden put the invasion at the center of his first address on the state of the Union on Tuesday night, welcoming a united international response that has made Russia “now isolated from the world more than ever.” Zelensky and Biden spoke hours before the address about sanctions against Russia, as well as US aid to Ukraine’s defense during the invasion. Biden called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to “misjudge” how Ukraine and the world would react to the invasion.

“He thought he could enter Ukraine – and the world would turn upside down. Instead, he encountered a wall of power he had never expected or imagined, “Biden said. “He met with the Ukrainian people.”

The Ukrainian president published videos from Kyiv, where he is leading the country’s military response, and was joined by government officials, military and civilian defenders in defense of the capital. Zelensky said he had become the Kremlin’s “target number 1” and that his family was “target number two.”

“They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state,” he said in a statement last week.

Zelensky, who told CNN and Reuters on Tuesday that he had not seen his family in recent days, said Ukraine was “emblematic” and deserved to be defended against Russia and Putin.

“Ukraine is the heart of Europe and now I think Europe sees Ukraine as something special to this world,” he said from the bunker. “That’s why [the] the world cannot lose this special thing. “

According to the Ukrainian newspaper Ukrainskaya Pravda, Putin instructed Kadyrov, the Chechen leader, to carry out the plot last month.

“The task of the Chechens was defined as the cleansing of Kyiv, physical liquidation and preventive work with Ukrainian leaders,” the newspaper said.

Danilov said he was grateful to members of Russia’s Federal Security Service for signaling Ukrainian officials to plot the assassination. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said over the weekend that the Ukrainian military had smashed a special unit of the Chechen National Guard. Among those killed was General Magomed Tushayev, commander of the 141st Chechen National Guard Motorized Regiment, Ukrainska Pravda reported.

Danilov clarified on Ukrainian television that the Kadyrovites were divided into two groups, and the one that was “destroyed” was traced in Hostomel, near the airport.

“Another group is now, so to speak, under fire,” he said.

David L. Stern contributed to this report.