Elite Chechen hit squad targeting Zelensky 'neutralized'

The Chechen special forces sent to kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other top officials have been “neutralized” thanks to intel from sympathetic Russian security forces, Ukrainian officials announced Tuesday.

Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, said on Ukrainian TV that sources inside Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who opposed the Russian invasion leaked the intelligence needed to track down the hit squad.

“We are already aware of the special operation that was to be carried out by [Chechen leader Ramzan] Kadyrov forces unit," Danilov said on Ukraine 24, reported The Mirror.

“We received the information from representatives of Russia’s Federal Security Service who do not want to take part in this bloody war,” he added. “The Kadyrov forces unit, which came to kill our President, was eliminated.”

The FSB is Russia’s intelligence and security agency and is considered the successor to the Soviet KGB, where Russian President Vladimir Putin worked as a foreign intelligence officer.

“They were divided in two groups, we were tracking them,” Danilov continued, according to The New Voice of Ukraine. “One group was handled near Hostomel, the other one is in our sights.”

“We won’t give up our president, our country,” Danilov added. “This is our land, begone.”

Zelensky claimed last weekend that he had been marked “target number one” for Putin, with his family being “target number two.”

Ramzan Kadyrov, the fashionable 45-year-old leader of the Russian republic of Chechnya, is a close ally of Putin and reportedly visited his forces in Ukraine. On Tuesday, he confirmed losses amongst Chechan troops serving under his command.

In a video last week, the Chechen squad of “hunters” was shown taking part in prayer ritual as they received their assignment to capture or kill key Ukrainians officials. Each soldier was reportedly given a special “deck of cards” with their targets photos and descriptions, reported the Daily Mail.

Secretary Danilov made no mention of the Wagner Group, another group of mercenaries deployed to Ukraine to kill senior Ukrainian figures, including Zelensky, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.