An underground anti-Vladimir Putin group say his days are numbered, hinting he could be executed over the war against Ukraine.
"He will not get away with it. At best, he will be court-martialed like Milosevic. At worst, executed like Ceausescu," the group's alleged leader told the Kyiv Post.
The National Republican Army (NRA) leader identified only as Aleksandr said in an exclusive interview with the Ukrainian news outlet the Kyiv Post Putin will be removed from power "as he becomes inconvenient for elites".
"The old man will become the fall guy and will be charged with everything that happened. Well, he certainly deserves that. However, his cronies won't be able to get away with it either. We have taken note of every move," Aleksandr told the outlet.
The NRA is an underground partisan group of Russians allegedly working to overthrow the Putin government.
Last month, the group claimed responsibility for the car bombing that killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of Putin ally Alexander Dugin.
Dugin was a philosopher and political commentator known for promoting Russian propaganda and often referred to as "Putin's brain".
Russia blamed the attack on Ukraine, which Ukraine has denied, but in the exclusive interview Aleksandr claimed Dugin was the target of the bomb but he escaped after switching cars last minute.
The NRA said while they do not consider an armed overthrow of government possible at this time, they believe sporadic attacks against authorities, media and their ideologies could help create a split among elites and "bring down Putin's resume from within".
"And we, the NRA, will do it from below," Aleksandr added.
Fighting continues in Ukraine
Kyiv on Monday made its boldest claim yet of success on the battlefield in its week-old counter-offensive against Russian forces in the south.
Following days of silence about their new offensive, Ukrainian officials posted an image online of three soldiers raising Ukraine's blue and yellow flag on a rooftop purportedly in Vysokopyllya, in the north of Kherson.
"We will renew our territory. We cannot freeze this conflict now. We need to step-by-step de-occupy our territory," Zelenskiy said in an interview with ABC News. "It's only a matter of time."
Ukraine's southern command said on Tuesday that four Russian ammunition depots had been destroyed in three districts of Kherson region in the previous 24 hours.
Bridges over the Dnipro river had been shelled, it added.
"Control and cover by fire of the crossings of the Dnipro river is systematic and effective," the southern command said in a statement.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the battlefield reports.
In a rare acknowledgment of the Ukrainian counter-offensive, TASS news agency on Monday quoted a Moscow-installed official in the Kherson region as saying plans for a referendum on joining Russia had been put on hold due to the security situation.
Ukraine's general staff late on Monday said Russian forces had been driven back in an unspecified area near Kramatorsk - a key town in eastern Donetsk region.
On Monday evening, a missile strike by Russian forces destroyed an oil depot in Kryvorizsky district in Dnipropetrovsk region, emergency authorities said.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday said Russia should not be designated a state sponsor of terrorism, a label Ukraine has pushed for but which Moscow has warned would rupture U.S.-Russian ties.
Reuters/Newshub
