Ukraine claims it has 'killed a team of Chechen assassins who were plotting to murder President Zelensky'

     

 

Ukraine has claimed an elite group of Chechen fighters plotting to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky has been destroyed

 

Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine's Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, said during a televised address today that the unit 'which came to kill our President, was eliminated'.

 

Earlier today, Ramzan Kadyrov,  the strongman leader of Chechnya,  said that Chechens have been killed in Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. The unit was sent into Ukraine by Kadyrov, who is a staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

 

'We are already aware of the special operation that was to be carried out by Kadyrov forces unit,' Danilov said on Ukraine 24 TV channel, The Mirror reported.

 

'We received the information from representatives of Russia's Federal Security Service who do not want to take part in this bloody war.

 

'The Kadyrov forces unit, which came to kill our President, was eliminated.'

 

Danilov said the unit had been split into two groups and its movements were being closely tracked.

 

He said that one of the two groups came under fire from Ukraine's forces in Hostomel - a north-west suburb of Ukraine's Kyiv capital. The other unit was 'in our sights', he said.

 

'They were divided in two groups, we were tracking them,' Danilov said on television. 'One group was handled near Hostomel, the other one is in our sights.'

 

Danilov continued: 'We will not give our President or our country to anyone. This is our land, get out of here.'