Former Ukrainian lawmaker Oleg Tsaryov was shot in Crimea following suspicions that he was in line to lead a puppet government in Ukraine for Russian leader Vladimir Putin if the Russian invasion had succeeded.
Tsaryov, 52, is currently in critical condition.
“At the time of arrival of the ambulance, Oleg was unconscious, with a lot of blood loss. There is no information about the state of his health at the moment,” said a Telegram post on his account.
The Security Service of Ukraine confirmed the attempted assassination.
“He has long been on the list of traitors who must answer for their crimes,” one source told the Kyiv Post. “Tsaryov is an absolutely legitimate target. This is not just a fanatic of the ‘Russian world’ but a person who personally came together with Russian tanks to seize Kyiv.”
Tsaryov is not the first “traitor” to be targeted since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Supporters of the war have been identified through Myrotvorets, a database of people considered to be enemies of Ukraine, and killed over the past year.
Leaked U.S. military cables suggest that Putin has been suffering from cancer for years and is in declining health.
