Kyiv has plans for survival of its government if Zelensky is killed

The disclosure follows reports that America and its allies had discussed how to secure a line of succession in the country.

Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking to his people from Kyiv, told US congress members at the weekend it could be the last time they saw him alive. Picture: AFP

Ukraine has made plans to ensure that its government survives if President Volodymyr Zelensky is assassinated, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said following reports the US its allies had discussed how to secure a line of succession in the country.

Mr Zelensky, who has been transformed by the Russian invasion into a wartime leader and folk hero, is said to have resisted suggestions that he abandon the Ukrainian capital with the words: “I need ammunition, not a ride.”

Over the weekend he warned members of congress in a video call that it could be the last time they saw him alive, according to the website Politico. His decision to remain in Kyiv as Russian forces advance has prompted discussions between the US and its allies over how to ensure an independent and internationally recognised government if Russia takes the capital and installs its own leader, according to The New YorkTimes, which cited anonymous officials.

The Times reported last week that Mr Zelensky had survived at least three assassination attempts since the Russian invasion. Two different outfits were sent to kill the Ukrainian President: mercenaries of the Kremlin-backed Wagner group and Chechen special forces. They appeared to have been betrayed by anti-war elements within Russia’s Federal Security Service.

The talks were said to have begun amid concerns that the Ukrainian constitution was unclear on the issue of succession, though it would make the speaker of the parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, the acting president if Mr Zelensky were killed. US officials are said to have urged that senior members of the government do not linger in the same place and that some be moved outside Kyiv.

Establishing a recognised line of succession would also help Western nations to continue to contribute military aid to Ukraine even if its government were forced to retreat to a stronghold in the Carpathian Mountains in the west, or to a neighbouring country.

Khrystyna Holynska, a Ukrainian academic and a policy researcher at the US think tank the Rand Corporation, warned last month that the Ukrainian government should take steps to clarify the line of succession.

In an editorial written with her colleague, William Courtney, in the Washington publication The Hill, she held up the US line of succession as a model. It offers 17 legislative leaders and cabinet secretaries beneath the president.

The pair also suggested that the government plan for a “large scale relocation to western Ukraine”, possibly to a dispersed network of concealed locations. Ukraine’s foreign ministry and its central banks could all be moved to Warsaw, they suggested.

On Sunday, Mr Blinken acknowledged holding discussions on the issue with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba. He said they had met just inside Ukraine a day earlier. “The Ukrainians have plans in place that I’m not going to talk about or get into any details on to make sure that there is what we would call continuity of government one way or another,” he told CBS.

The Times