An assassination attempt on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was foiled and a Russian hit squad was “destroyed” after Ukrainians were tipped off by Russian spies, a Ukrainian official said Tuesday on Ukrainian television.
Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov said “that his country received information about a planned assassination attempt on President Volodymyr Zelensky from agents of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB),” National Review reported.
“I can say that we received information from representatives of the FSB, who today have no desire to take part in this bloody war,” Danilov said.
“The Kadyrovites’ elite group, which came here specifically to eliminate our president, was directly destroyed,” the official added.
“Kadyrovites refers to a Chechen paramilitary group accused of a number of human-rights violations and abuses,” National Review noted. “They serve at the pleasure of Razman Kadyrov, the head of the Chechen Republic and a close ally of Vladimir Putin.”
According to Insider, Danilov said the alleged assassins “were split into two groups, with one destroyed in the town of Hostomel, just northwest of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and the other ‘under fire.'”
Zelensky reportedly refused to be evacuated from Kyiv last week, famously saying he needs “ammunition, not a ride.” The Daily Wire reported:
“The U.S. government is prepared to help Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky leave Kyiv to avoid being captured or killed by advancing Russian forces, according to U.S. and Ukrainian officials,” The Washington Post reported. “But so far, the president has refused to go.”
A senior American intelligence official with direct knowledge of the conversation that U.S. officials had with Zelensky when he was reportedly asked to evacuate says that Zelensky responded: “The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.”
The European Parliament on Tuesday voted to accept Ukraine’s application to join the European Union (EU) after the Ukrainian president gave a passionate speech before the body, The Daily Wire reported:
Zelensky formally signed an application to join the European Union on an expedited basis on Monday after making repeated to calls to allow his country to join the bloc. Zelensky’s calls have received vocal support from some already in the bloc, including the countries of Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
After nearly a week of fending off Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Zelensky gave an impassioned speech in front of the European Parliament that received a standing ovation and “near-unanimous” support from the body’s members to begin the process of joining Ukraine to the bloc. The parliament vote does not grant Ukraine status of an EU-candidate country.
Russian military reportedly launched a missile strike into Kharkiv’s Freedom Square on Tuesday, a civilian area in the heart of the nation’s second-largest city, The Daily Wire noted. “This is the price of freedom. We are fighting just for our land. And for our freedom, despite the fact that all of the cities of our country are now blocked,” Zelensky told the European Parliament.