Ukraine is prepared for the event in which its leader is assassinated and has a plan in place following multiple attempts on his life, according to an opposition lawmaker.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has been targeted on several occasions amid Vladimir Putin’s illegal and unprovoked invasion.
He even survived three single attempts in one week alone, previous reports have suggested.
Now, the events that would follow if a future attempt proves successful have been revealed.
According to Mykola Knyazhytsky, an opposition lawmaker from the western city of Lviv, Zelensky’s powers would immediately be heaped onto the chairman of Ukraine under the country’s constitution.
He told Politico: “Therefore, there would be no power vacuum.”
However, Knyazhytsky admitted that this backup option may not be popular as current chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk has only managed a trust rating of 40 percent in opinion polls.
But Stefanchuk would likely be installed as a figurehead, with the head of the president’s office Andrii Yermak, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, and Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov also running operations, he said.
Two different groups of mercenaries have previously been sent to kill Zelensky, including by Wagner group, top Ukrainian officials say.
Chechen special forces, known as Kadyrovites, were also believed to be involved in one murder plot.
Oleksiy Danilo, Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council chief, said in an interview: “We are well aware of the special operation that was to take place directly by the Kadyrovites to eliminate our president.”
He told Ukrainian TV channels that Russian spies gave them a tip-off about the assassination in advance.
Danilo said: “I can say that we have received information from the FSB, who do not want to take part in this bloody war.”
But Zelensky does not appear to be fazed about the target on his head.
He told CNN last month: “If I were thinking about it constantly, I would just shut myself down, very much like Putin now who doesn’t leave his bunker. Of course, my bodyguards should think how to prevent this from happening, and this is their task. I don’t think about it.”
Meanwhile, Zelensky has also warned that Putin “won’t survive even 10 years” in a chilling threat to his Russian counterpart.
He said during an interview with Brazil’s TV Globo: “Putin won’t live that many years. He did not fight in Syria at the pace he is fighting us. That is why he will not stand 30 years. He will not exist, he will die.”
He added: “All their actions on the battlefield indicate that today Russia is not able to completely occupy Ukraine and destroy us.”
In May, Moscow alleged it thwarted an attack by Ukrainian drones on the Kremlin, labelling it an unsuccessful assassination attempt.
Zelensky poured cold water on these claims, saying: “We don’t attack Putin or Moscow.”
But now, Ukrainian drones have been raining down on the Russian capital.
A skyscraper housing Russian government offices was hit for the second time in two days on Tuesday night in fresh attacks.
The damaged building houses teams from Russia’s ministry of economic development, the digital ministry, and the ministry of industry and trade.
No one was injured in the skyscraper attack, which began in the dead of night when a huge explosion ripped through the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.
Ukrainian drones also struck two administrative buildings in the Moskva-Citi business district, according to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin over the weekend.
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