The reports reveal that "a flurry of planning" at the State Department has been happening since the Russian invasion kicked off a week-and-a-half ago. "We're doing contingency planning now for every possibility," a Biden admin official was quoted in Washington Post as saying, which also named Poland as the likely location for a Ukrainian government in exile.

Meanwhile, the same deep state source that uses both the WaPo and the NYT, advised the latter that western allies are discussing how to secure Ukraine's line of succession "if President Volodymyr Zelensky is captured or killed."

President Zelensky, who has called himself the Kremlin's "No.1" target, is further being recognized in Washington as the "the pivotal force" capable of rallying an armed resistance of local Ukrainians from across the Polish border.

"Should the United States and its allies choose to back an insurgency, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would be the pivotal force, officials said, maintaining morale and rallying Ukrainians living under Russian occupation to resist their powerful and well-equipped foe," WaPo writes based on US officials. 

Zelensky's advisers also described their own secretive plans are in place for his security team to whisk him away to the border and outside the country in the event of a rapid Russian takeover of all government buildings, but one was cited as saying, "So far, he has refused to go."