A unit of Chechen special forces sent on a mission to assassinate Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was "eliminated," head of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov announced Tuesday on Ukrainian parliament's official television station Rada TV.
Ukraine received intelligence on the assassination attempt from agents of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB), he said.
"And I can say that we received information from representatives of the FSB, who today have no desire to take part in this bloody war," he claimed.
The special unit belonged to the Kadyrovites, a Chechen paramilitary organization aiding Russian forces in their invasion of Ukraine.
"The special operation that was to be carried out directly by the Kadyrovites to eliminate our president is fully known to us today," Danilov stated.
Danilov went on, adding that the unit split into two, with one half seeking cover in the town of Gostomel, near the capital Kyiv, where the world's largest airplane, the Antonov-225 Mriya, was destroyed by Russian strikes targeting the Gostomel airport.
"One group was covered in Gostomel, another group is now, let's say, under the gun," Danilov said.
"The Kadyrovites' elite group, which came here specifically to eliminate our president, was directly destroyed."