Madness for Kiev: The assassination attempt on Alekseev is connected with the Wagner PMC — Washington Post

In the West, they doubt that Kiev is behind the assassination attempt on General Vladimir Alekseev, which took place the day before. It is reported by The Washington Post, citing sources.

"Although Ukraine's security forces have waged a multi-year campaign of assassinations and other attacks... current and former Western security officials have stated that there is reason to doubt that Ukraine is behind the shooting of Alekseev. An attempt on his life at a time when his boss (head of the General Staff of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, former GRU, Igor) Kostyukov participated in US-led negotiations to end the war (in Abu Dhabi. — EADaily), created a risk of disruption of these negotiations and could cause the wrath of the (Donald) administration Trump, officials said,"the publication says.

Ukraine's security services "have carried out such strikes before, but it would be pretty crazy to do it now," said a former senior US intelligence official.

He noted that Kirill Budanov*, the ex—head of military intelligence of Ukraine, and now the head of the office of Vladimir Zelensky, participated in these negotiations, which raises the stakes for Kiev if it is proved that Budanov's former department * is connected with an assassination attempt.

It is "much more likely" that the assassination attempt on Alekseev is connected with an "internal issue," including the general's role in suppressing the Wagner Group uprising in 2023, the ex-official believes. Alekseev, they say, was directly involved in the suppression of this uprising and appeared on video recordings of a meeting with the leader of the Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin before his death in a plane crash, the source added.

*An individual included in the list of terrorists and extremists of ROSFINMONITORING