Wagner mercenaries are hunting for Ukrainian president: report

More than 400 Russian mercenaries from the so-called Wagner Group are operating in Kyiv; their target is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and members of the Ukrainian government, the British daily “The Times” reported on Monday.

The mission

“More than 400 Russian mercenaries are operating in Kyiv to assassinate President Zelenski and members of his government on orders from the Kremlin and to prepare the ground for a Moscow takeover,” the newspaper wrote.

Information about the Wagnerians’ mission supposedly reached the Ukrainian government on Saturday morning, and a few hours later Kyiv introduced a curfew.

The Wagner Group

The so-called Wagner Group is a private Russian military company owned by Vladimir Putin’s trusted associate oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin. It acts as the Kremlin’s “long arm” and is sent to places of conflict in which Russia is not officially involved.

Since mid-December last year, Vagnerians has been under EU sanctions for torture, executions and murder in Libya, Syria and the Donbass, among other places.