Ukraine’s president has admitted he is ‘target number one’ for Russian assassins in Kyiv – and his wife and young children are ‘number two’ – but insists he remains in the capital despite being at the top of Putin’s kill list with the city under siege, declaring: ‘I’m staying with my people’.

Volodymyr Zelensky, 44, is being hunted by Putin’s attack dog army of special forces with a list of Ukrainian officials to capture or kill having been given the same task in Crimea, Syria and Chechnya in recent years.

His wife Oleana and two young children are also in hiding – but remain in the country – amid fears the Kremlin wants to wipe out or imprison Ukraine’s entire political class, with Mr Zelensky warning: ‘My family is the number two goal’. They were last seen together on Valentine’s Day.