Squad of Chechen special forces 'hunters' is unleashed in Ukraine to detain - or kill - Kyiv officials
- A squad of Chechen special forces 'hunters' has been ordered to detain or kill specific Ukrainian officials
- The kill squad was pictured in a Ukrainian forest as they took part in prayer rituals ahead of potential fighting
- It came after Ramzan Kadyrov, 45, the republic's leader and a close Putin ally, visited his forces in Ukraine
- Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, 44, said on Thursday he had been told there were Russian special forces in Kyiv hunting him down
- He said his family were the second target on the 'kill list' issued by Moscow for senior Ukrainian government officials
A squad of Chechen special forces 'hunters' has been unleashed in Ukraine to detain or kill a set of specific Ukrainian officials.
Each soldier was reportedly given a special 'deck of cards' with Ukrainian officials' photos and descriptions on them, a Moscow Telegram channel with links to the security establishment reported.
The list is of officials and security officers suspected of 'crimes' by the Russian Investigative Committee, the report added.
It came as
Ukraine's president admitted he is 'target number one' for Russian assassins in his capital, while his family is 'the number two goal' for Putin's hitmen.
The Chechen squad is thought to be in a Ukrainian forest and was allegedly given an 'order to kill' if those on the wanted list could not be detained.
There is speculation those identified by Moscow as 'Nazis' would also be on the hunted list.
Putin previously said a key aim of invading Ukraine was to 'deNazify' the country.
State TV in Chechnya reported that Ramzan Kadyrov, 45, the republic's leader and a close Putin ally, had visited his forces in Ukraine.
The Chechens are believed to be from the South battalion of the Federal Guard Service, based in Chechnya.
Kadyrov yesterday met with Viktor Zolotov, director of the Federal National Guard Service and Commander-in-Chief of the Russian National Guard Forces, another close Putin ally.
Volodymyr
Zelensky, 44, addressed the nation on Thursday night, at the end of the first day of the Russian invasion of his country.
The former TV comedian insisted he had remained in Kyiv as he urged his fellow citizens to stay strong.
He said he was speaking from Kyiv but the elegance of the presidential palace was long gone: Zelensky, in his olive green t-shirt, appeared to be speaking from a bunker.
'I know that a lot of misinformation and rumours are being spread now,' he said.
'In particular, it is claimed that I have left Kyiv. I remain in the capital, I am staying with my people,' he said.
Zelensky said his family also remained in the country - his wife Oleana, a 44-year-old architect and screenwriter, and their two children: daughter Aleksandra, 17, and son Kiril, nine.
'My family is not a traitor, but a citizen of Ukraine,' he said, adding that he would not reveal their location.
'According to our information, the enemy marked me as the number one target. My family is the number two goal.
'They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the Head of State.'
President Zelensky has also expressed his anger at Western rulers after his country was 'left alone' to face Russian troops as officials warn that Kyiv will be seized by this weekend.
He called his fallen compatriots 'heroes' after 137 were killed on the first day of fighting, and insisted he will stay until the bitter end.
He said: 'They're killing people and turning peaceful cities into military targets. It's foul and will never be forgiven.
'We have been left alone to defend our state. Who is ready to fight alongside us? I don't see anyone.
'Who is ready to give Ukraine a guarantee of NATO membership? Everyone is afraid.'
He said they believed Russian special forces were already in the capital.
'We also have information that sabotage groups of the enemy have entered Kyiv,' he said.
'That's why I am urging Kyivites: be careful, follow the rules of curfew. I remain in the government quarter together with all those who are necessary for the work of the central government.'
The Ukrainian capital is expected to be surrounded by Russian forces this weekend and the country's resistance effectively crippled, US security officials fear.
Troops are already closing in on the seat of Ukrainian power after taking control of the strategic
Chernobyl nuclear power plant earlier on Thursday, and will seize it within 96 hours, bringing a 'new Iron Curtain' down on Europe, Zelensky warned.
In the early hours of Friday, explosions were heard across the capital, Kyiv, and air raid sirens rang out.
Ukraine's deputy defense ministry said that one missile was shot out of the sky by their anti-missile defense systems.
Another missile struck a residential building in the city, the government said.
A Russian jet, was shot down by a surface-to-air missile in a separate incident, the Ukrainian government said.
Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashenko shared footage on social media of a blaze in what he said was the Darnitsky district of Kyiv, in the southeast of the city on the left bank of the Dnipro river.
Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, said today will be the war's 'hardest day'.
Once Kyiv is surrounded, US intelligence believes the plan will be for Russian special forces to move in and seize an airport - likely Sikorsky or Boryspil - which would then be used to fly in a much larger force of up to 10,000 paratroopers who would assault the capital.
The job of the paratroopers would be to enter the city, find Zelensky, his ministers, and parliamentarians, before forcing them to sign a peace deal handing control of the country back to Russia or a Moscow-backed puppet regime - effectively ending the war without Putin's ground forces needing to complete the difficult and bloody task of seizing and occupying the whole country.
It appears the Russians almost pulled off the plan on the first day of the invasion when 20 attack helicopters landed a crack team of troops at Antonov Airport, 15 miles to the north of Kyiv.
Ukrainian national guard units managed to retake the landing strip overnight after heavy fighting, scattering the surviving Russian attackers into the surrounding countryside.
The military may last slightly longer but this isn't going to last long.'
A source close to the Ukrainian government said they agreed that Kyiv will be surrounded within 96 hours but believed the government will stay strong and not collapse.
In a bid to thwart the imminent capture of the city, Emmanuel Macron spoke to Vladimir Putin on Thursday night, who gave the French leader an 'exhaustive' explanation of his justification for war.
The Kremlin said the call took place at Macron's initiative, and he and Putin agreed to stay in contact.
Zelensky has also signed a decree on the general mobilisation of the population within 90 days, but men aged 18-60 are banned from leaving the country.
Speaking after the latest developments, Joe Biden announced more sanctions against Russia but admitted that he had not expected previous threats of financial penalties to deter Putin.
He also resisted calls to send in US troops to Ukraine, saying he has no plans to speak to the Russian leader who he accuses of trying to rebuild a Soviet empire.
The sanctions will target Russian banks, oligarchs, state-controlled companies and high-tech sectors, but Russian oil and natural gas were exempt in a bid to avoid disruption to global markets.
'Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences,' Biden said in remarks at the White House.
Putin personally gave the order to attack around 5am on Thursday, unleashing a salvo of rocket fire that American intelligence said involved more than 100 short and medium-range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and surface-to-air missiles, and 75 bombers that targeted military sites including barracks, warehouses and airfields in order to knock out the country's military command structure.
Russia said the strikes destroyed 74 Ukrainian military ground facilities, 11 airfields, three command posts and 18 radar stations controlling Kyiv's anti-aircraft batteries.
That was followed by attacks from Crimea in the south towards the city of Kherson, a northern advance from Belarus to Kyiv, and an eastern advance from Belgorod towards Kharkiv where the heaviest fighting is going on.
American officials said this was merely an 'initial phase' of the attack, and that the majority of Russia's 190,000 troops at the front remain in reserve.
The goal of the attack is to 'take key population centres' and 'decapitate the Ukrainian government', the officials added.
Ukraine's health ministry said so far 137 people have been killed on the first day of conflict, while 300 have been wounded.
The port cities of Mariupol and Odessa, where Ukraine's main naval bases are located, were also attacked - though Odessa appeared to remain under Ukrainian control as of Thursday afternoon. Russian tankers blockaded the Kerch Strait, leading from the Back Sea to the Sea of Azov, cutting off Mariupol.
Ukraine has hit back, shooting down five Russian helicopters, destroying dozens of tanks and capturing Russian troops.
A Russian AN-26 military transport aircraft also crashed in the southern Voronezh region, killing its crew on board.
The accident could have been caused by a technical failure and has not inflicted any damage on the ground, Interfax said, citing a press office of Russia's western military district.
In the address to his nation, Zelensky also described Russia as 'evil' and said Putin had attacked 'like a suicidal scoundrel... just as Fascist Germany did in World War II'.
'Ukraine will not surrender its freedom, whatever Moscow thinks,' he added.
'For Ukrainians independence and the right to live free on our land is the highest value.'
He had earlier called on all Ukrainian citizens willing to defend their homeland to step forward, saying guns will be issued to everyone who wants one.
He also asked for civilians to give blood to help wounded troops.
And he asked world leaders to impose the 'harshest sanctions possible' on Putin.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, addressing the nation at midday, said western allies are preparing a 'massive' package of sanctions against Russia and told the people of Ukraine: 'We cannot and will not just look away.'
Johnson referred to Putin as a 'dictator' who would never 'subdue the national feeling of the Ukrainians'.
As the West prepared to cut off Russia financially, Vladimir Putin summoned his oligarchs to demand loyalty over his attack on Ukraine - perhaps fearing a rebellion from within after prominent Russian TV figures and celebrities spoke out to oppose the conflict.
Speaking in the Kremlin, he said that Russia had been 'forced' to take action over Ukraine and had 'no other choice' but to attack, saying the country remains 'part of the global economy' and that he 'will not hurt the system we belong to'.
He told them: 'I want you to show solidarity with the government.'
A squad of Chechen special forces 'hunters' (pictured) has been unleashed in Ukraine to detain or kill a set of specific Ukrainian officials.
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Exclusive: U.S. Expects Kyiv to Fall in Days as Ukraine Source Warns of Encirclement
Three U.S. officials have told
Newsweek they expect Ukraine's capital Kyiv to fall to incoming Russian forces within days, and the country's resistance to be effectively neutralized soon thereafter.
The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that Moscow's focus, as revealed in Russian President
Vladimir Putin's references to a "special military operation" to "demilitarize" the neighboring country, would be to encircle Ukrainian forces and force them to surrender or be destroyed. They expect Kyiv to be taken within 96 hours, and then the leadership of Ukraine to follow in about a week's time.
And Russia's thunderous attacks on Ukrainian government and military institutions, paired with reports of ground personnel seeking to take strategic points, including the Chernobyl nuclear facility, appeared to only be the initial phase of what may be a more comprehensive ground campaign.
One former senior U.S. intelligence officer with extensive experience dealing with Russia expressed a similar sentiment.
"After the air and artillery end and the ground war really starts, I think Kyiv falls in just a few days," the former senior U.S. intelligence officer told
Newsweek on the condition of anonymity as well.
"The military may last slightly longer," the former intelligence officer added, "but this isn't going to last long."
Afterward, the senior U.S. intelligence officer said the next stages may be determined by U.S. President
Joe Biden's capability and willingness to risk further provoking Moscow by supporting partisan efforts on behalf of a potential Ukrainian resistance.
"Then it either becomes a robust insurgency or it doesn't, depending largely on Biden," the former senior U.S. intelligence officer said.
A source close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's government, who also asked not to be named, agreed with the U.S. assessment that Kyiv could be surrounded within 96 hours. But the source did not believe Zelenskyy's government would collapse.
Asked by
Newsweek whether the government was confident it could break a possible Russian encirclement, the source said, "I think it's too early to say...They say Ukraine is holding better than they expected."
A
NATO diplomatic official, who also did not wish to be named as the official was not authorized to speak publicly on the subject, told
Newsweek of the U.S. assessment: "My personal opinion: unfortunately, it does sound rather believable. However, I think now the first 24 hours are the most critical."
A statement from Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine's presidential chief of staff, and shared with
Newsweek by Ukraine's embassy in Washington outlined what Kyiv suspected were Moscow's goals and the likelihood of Russian forces seizing government buildings in major cities.
"The Office of the President of Ukraine believes the Russian federation has two tactical goals – to seize territories and attack the legitimate political leadership of Ukraine in order to spread chaos and install a marionette government that would sign a peace deal on bilateral relations with Russia," Podolyak said. "The enemy attempts to destabilize [the] situation in large cities, in particular Kharkiv and Kyiv. The probability exists the Russian armed forces will seize the government quarters."
The Antonov Airport near the town of Hostomel, just outside Kyiv, was the scene of some of the most dramatic early fighting. Ukrainian Interior Ministry officials reported early Thursday that Russian helicopter-borne forces had seized the airfield, though fighting around it is believed to be ongoing.
The outcome could be pivotal to Ukraine's fate. The airport is 15 miles west of Kyiv. If secured by Russian troops, Antonov could become a springboard for an assault on the capital.
"Let's see if they can counter," the Ukrainian source said of the Ukrainian troops at Hostomel.
Conflicting reports have emerged of whether Russian troops have captured or been repelled from various positions across the country. One notable site was Chernobyl, where the world's worst nuclear disaster took place during the Soviet era in 1986 and had since been captured by Russian forces, according to Podolyak.
But clashes continued as both sides tallied the other's casualties.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi claimed earlier Thursday that Ukrainian troops have destroyed at least four Russian tanks and dozens of armored vehicles and downed up to six Russian planes and two helicopters. The Ukrainian Armed Forces then reported that Ukraine was targeted by four ballistic missiles from the direction of Belarus.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's Crisis Center, for its part, reported more than 30 strikes with Kaliber cruise missiles, multiple-launch rocket systems, aircraft and artillery against Ukrainian civil and military infrastructure.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov later said that "groups of troops of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics broke through the well-equipped echeloned defence of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, advanced 6-8 kilometers deep," a task "made possible thanks to the fire support of Russian artillery and army aviation."
"All tasks assigned to the groups of troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation for the day have been completed successfully," the spokesperson said.
He added that the "joint use of raiding detachments and airborne troops in the Crimean direction enabled Russian troops to reach the city of Kherson," an effort that "made it possible to unblock the North Crimean Canal and restore water supply to the Crimean peninsula."
"In total, as a result of the strikes of the Russian Armed Forces, 83 ground objects of the military infrastructure of Ukraine were disabled," the spokesperson added. "Since the beginning of the special military operation, two Su-27s, two Su-24s, one helicopter and four Bayraktar TB-2 attack unmanned aerial vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been shot down."
The list was later amended to also include Russia-built, Ukraine-operated S-300 and Buk-M1 surface-to-air missile systems, along with 11 airfields three command points and a naval base.
Putin's decision to invade Ukraine came late Wednesday as the Russian leader accused the fellow former Soviet republic of acting as a puppet to Western interests by seeking to join the U.S.-led NATO military alliance and acquire weapons to threaten Russia's national security.
"We have been left no other option to protect Russia and our people, but for the one that we will be forced to use today," Putin said. "The situation requires us to take decisive and immediate action."
Ukrainian officials have repeatedly denied that their country poses any threat to Russia. Amid an unprecedented Russian military buildup along Ukraine's borders, the Biden administration has warned for weeks that an incursion could begin at any time.
Newsweek reported Wednesday, prior to the beginning of the invasion, that the United States had warned Zelenskyy that a full-scale Russian invasion to include the use of airstrikes, missiles, ground troops and cyber attacks was anticipated to begin within 48 hours.
In the weeks and months leading up to the eruption of the conflict, Moscow had accused Washington of hyping up the possibility of a war. On Monday, however, Putin sent in troops he termed "peacekeepers," after offering recognition to two breakaway separatist states in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, signaling that more military action might follow.
The self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics then appealed to the Russian leader for military support, which Putin granted.
The United States and its allies have roundly condemned Putin's actions. They have begun to introduce a series of sanctions designed to hurt Russia's economy and the wealth of influential officials within Putin's inner circle, as well as their family members.
After announcing sanctions against Russia's sovereign wealth fund, Biden added further economic restrictions against state-backed institutions during a televised address Thursday.
"President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering," Biden said. "Russia alone is responsible for the death and destruction this attack will bring, and the United States and its allies and partners will respond in a united and decisive way. The world will hold Russia accountable.
"After the air and artillery end and the ground war really starts, I think Kyiv falls in just a few days," one former senior U.S. intelligence officer told Newsweek.
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