On August 1, 2023, the American publication Politico published an article that talks about Ukraine's plan in the event of the death of Volodymyr Zelenskyi. In this case, the “governing council” will supposedly include the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk, the head of the Office of the President Andrii Yermak, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov. At the same time, Valerii Zaluzhnyi will remain the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The publication refers to the comments of the Ukrainian MP from the opposition party “European Solidarity” Mykola Kniazhytskyi and senior researcher at the Eurasian Center of the Atlantic Council Adrian Karatnytskyi. Ukrainian businessman Yaroslav Azhniuk ruled out the possibility of a Russian assassination as “the realm of alternative history”.

The case was studied by the Center for Strategic Communications. On August 1, on the air of the telethon, NSDC Secretary Oleksii Danilov commented on Politico's article and called it nonsense and stuffing. “We have a Constitution, we have laws, we know how to do it. But why do some representatives of our country do such information stuffing providing [journalists] with absolutely non-validated information, this is a question”, Danilov said.

Oleksii Danilov also noted that recently Russia has stepped up information attacks, and it can use Western media to spread lies.