Who would take over in Ukraine if Zelensky was ever assassinated?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proved to be one of the anchors by which the people of Ukraine steadied the ship of state after the Russian Federation began its invasion of the country.

Zelensky became so important to Ukraine's war effort that officials in the capital eventually developed a plan just in case their president died or fell victim to one of Russia's many assassination plots.

If future historians ever had to point to one thing that held the Ukrainian state together in the early days of Russia’s invasion, they would probably choose Zelensky's and his refusal to abandon his people. 

The Ukrainian President’s now famous one-liner: “I need ammunition, not a ride” will likely go down in history as one of the most decisive points of the war. But Zelensky’s refusal to leave Kyiv put him in a lot of danger. 

Zelensky made it clear in the days after the invasion began that he was not leaving the capital and he said as much to the Ukrainian people. “I am here. We are not putting down arms. We will be defending our country.”

The Ukrainian President survived more than a dozen assassination attempts in the early weeks of the war, the Head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office Mykhailo Podolyak told Ukrainska Pravda in March 2022. 

"Foreign sources talk of two or three attempts. I believe that there have been more than a dozen such attempts,” Podoliak explained about the attempts on Zelensky's life. 

“We are constantly receiving intelligence that there are certain reconnaissance groups trying to enter government quarters," the Ukrainian official went on to explain. 

Today Zelensky is much safer than he was in the early days of the war but attempts on his life are still a real threat, though he explained in a July 2023 interview with CNN that he didn't allow himself to think about it. 

“If I were thinking about it constantly, I would just shut myself down, very much like Putin now who doesn’t leave his bunker,” Zelenskey told CNN’s Erin Burnett in Odessa. 

“Of course, my bodyguards should think how to prevent this from happening, and this is their task. I don’t think about it.” the Ukrainian President continued. 

But even if Zelensky wasn't thinking about his assassination, other officials in government were—and they worked out exactly what would happen if their president was taken out by Russian assassins according to a new report from Politico. 

Under the constitution, the presidential line of succession is clear, and if Zelensky wasn’t able to perform his duties as president then the chairmen of the country’s parliament would take over explained opposition lawmaker Mykola Knyazhytsky to Politico.

Photo Credit: Twitter @m_kniazhytskyi

“Therefore, there would be no power vacuum.” Knyazhytsky asserted. So if Zelensky was killed then the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, would end up taking over, and he would be assisted by the current leadership that surrounds Zelensky.

Politico noted Stefanchuk might act as the figurehead of a governing council including Andrii Yermak, head of the presidential office, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuebla, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, and Ukraine’s top general Valery Zaluzhny, who would retain his command according to the news organization. 

“The country has reached a point of very substantial solidarity and national unity, so if something terrible happened to Zelensky it would not be as decisive as you might think,” Karatnycky told Politico. 

Karatnycky admitted that Zelensky’s assassination would be a psychological shock for the nation but added it can be tough to gauge how the nation would react since Ukraine has changed a lot in the wake of Russia’s invasion. 

“It is important to remember that the key factors in Ukraine’s struggle against Russian aggression are the resilience of the armed forces, the skill of its command and victories on the front, " Knyazhytsky said.

“This is what matters most in terms of Ukraine’s political stability,” Knyazhytsky added. The biggest problem, if Zelensky was killed, might come from the country’s allies Politico added, though exactly what would happen is unknown, and hopefully, it stays that way.