Putin lifts ban on killing Ukrainian leadership, open season on assassinating Zelensky

Russia’s Security Council has lifted an unofficial restriction on assassinating top Ukrainian leadership, including President Volodymyr Zelensky. The reported decision came during a closed-door meeting involving Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The decision was sparked by Ukraine’s repeated attacks on Russia’s oil export infrastructure along the Baltic Sea, particularly the port of Ust-Luga near St. Petersburg. The port has been critical in financing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine because it allows Russia to evade international sanctions and transport oil to Asia.

According to the Russian outlet Bloknot, security officials warned that Russia was running out of money to defend against Ukrainian drone attacks. The Leningrad region, for example, has spent the equivalent of roughly $300 billion on air defense systems.

Officials also reportedly argued that retaliatory strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure were no longer deterring Kyiv.

“The destruction of other people’s heating does not stop attacks on our refineries, because the people who give orders feel completely safe under the protection of Moscow’s unspoken ‘gentlemen’s agreements’ with the West,” a Russian source said, according to the outlet.

Officials have suggested the use of heavy hypersonic weapons to target bunkers and motorcades holding Ukrainian leadership. Russia had previously tried to assassinate Zelensky at the beginning of the war, but Putin had reportedly agreed to halt such efforts. According to a CNN report earlier this year, Zelensky has survived roughly a dozen Russian assassination attempts.

Last year, Zelensky was the target of an assassination plot that was to be carried out by a Polish military pensioner who had been recruited by the Soviet Union decades earlier. Ukraine’s internal security agency head detailed the plot to Ukrainian media, saying the suspect was identified in Poland. The individual was handed a five and a half year prison sentence after being convicted in connection with cooperating with Russian intelligence.