A cast of Russian special forces, ranging from elite front line troops to assassination and sabotage squads, is said to be operating in Ukraine with instructions to target the country’s leadership.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, claimed in the early hours of Friday that the Kremlin’s special forces had entered the capital Kyiv to hunt him and were also pursuing his family as part of a presumed regime change strategy.
Prior to the invasion, security officials in Washington had briefed that Russian forces were being issued with “kill lists” of prominent Ukrainian politicians, officials and campaigners to be hunted down as part of Vladimir Putin’s chilling vow to subject the country to “denazification”.
Mr Zelensky, who said his wife and his two children were in hiding elsewhere in Ukraine, remained defiant in the face of the Russian assault, saying he was still in the capital’s government district.
In a video statement recorded against a backdrop of the official Ukrainian crest, the president, clad in a khaki t-shirt, said: “According to our information, the enemy marked me as target No 1, my family as target No 2. They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state. We have information that enemy sabotage groups have entered Kyiv.”
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Russia has a substantial array of special operations troops, generally known as “Spetsnaz” forces, capable of carrying out spearhead assaults and operating behind enemy lines.
Footage posted on social media following Vladimir Putin’s order to invade in the early hours of Wednesday appeared to show elite combat troops in the southern Kherson region of Ukraine. A video showed a Ukrainian civilian confronting the soldiers and telling them to put sunflower seeds in their pockets – an insult based on the idea that when they fall in battle flowers will sprout from their bodies.
But it is the clandestine forces operating in major cities, and in particular in Kyiv, that the Kremlin will be relying on as part of its efforts to undermine Ukraine’s command and control capabilities and ultimately remove its democratically elected civilian leadership.
The Ukrainian military said that a detachment of Russian “spies and saboteurs” had been located in a district of Kyiv. Police ordered civilians sheltering in a city centre metro station not to leave because of gunfire in the area.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace confirmed the presence of Spetsnaz forces in Ukraine but said they had failed to take a number of targets. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the Russian military had sustained significant casualties: “They’ve lost over 450 personnel. One of the significant airports they were trying to capture with their elite Spetsnaz has failed to be taken. In fact, the Ukrainians have taken it back.”
Prior to the invasion Western security sources briefed that some 300 Russian mercenaries linked to Moscow’s intelligence services had infiltrated Ukraine with the aim of staging so-called “false flag” attacks as a pretext for war and then carrying out sabotage operations once an invasion had been.
The fighters are understood to belong to the Wagner Group, a paramilitary organisation largely staffed by Russian veterans and headed by a member of Putin’s inner circle who was this week sanctioned by the European Union.
Like many of Russia’s Spetsnaz troops, the Wagner mercenaries have been used in Syria and eastern Ukraine in recent years, gaining further battle experience.