Top elements of the Russian political and business segments are afraid for their future after a possible Russian defeat and are therefore seeking to contact Ukraine and other countries, said Andrii Yusov, a representative of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.
"They are looking for ways out, of course. And not only with Ukraine. The geography in which they are trying to get personal security guarantees for themselves, for their fortunes, for their families is quite wide," according to Yusov.
Further explaining who is seeking these guarantees, Yusov said that "this mostly concerns the conditional business elite, but there are already also representatives of the political segment of the top of the Kremlin residents. This process will only gain momentum."
The main guarantee the Russian refugees will be seeking is that they will not be personally prosecuted, according to him.
"Ukraine, of course, uses any tools, the most creative approaches in order to speed up the liberation of our territories, bringing the aggressor state to justice... Many contacts and operations are being implemented, which we cannot talk about now. But after the victory, believe me, there will be a lot of interesting things."
Zelensky announced new sanctions
Meanwhile, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky announced a new round of sanctions against Russian businesses and their owners in an address published on his official website.
One of the sanctions is aimed "against the Russian defense industry enterprises that maintain the terrorist army. This time, 322 companies were added to the sanctions lists – manufacturers of weapons, components, etc," according to Zelensky.
Two other sanctions target "individuals and legal entities that help circumvent sanctions against Russia, keep the property of war criminals, and are involved in the destruction of freedom both on the territory of Russia itself and on our land," he added.
Zelensky added an explanation of his rationale for sanctioning Russian private persons. "The tougher the sanctions regime against Russia, the more restrictions against the terrorist state and all related persons, against the entire Russian war economy, the faster the end of the aggression will be."