Ukraine’s Security Service, SBU, has announced that it has foiled a plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky, organized by Russia.
The announcement was made on Tuesday, the day Russian President Vladimir Putin began his fifth term in the Kremlin.
According to the SBU, the plot also targeted the liquidation of other high-ranking Ukrainian officials, including the head of military intelligence (GUR), Kirilo Budanov, and the head of the SBU, Vasyl Maliuk.
Two colonels from the Ukrainian government’s protection unit were arrested, the Ukrainian security service said.
The SBU claims that these suspects were part of a network of agents of the Russian Security Service, FSB.
The suspects would have been looking for volunteer “executioners” among Zelenski’s bodyguards, with the mission of taking him hostage and killing him later, notes the BBC.
SBU: The plan was to kill Kirilo Budanov before Easter
The group of conspirators allegedly planned to kill the head of the GUR, Kirilo Budanov, before the Orthodox Easter.
According to the SBU, the group planned to use a “mole” to obtain information about Budanov’s location, which they would then attack with missiles and drones.
One of the arrested officers had already bought drones and anti-personnel mines, the SBU claims.
The head of the SBU, Vasil Maliuk, estimated that the attack should have been “a gift to Vladimir Putin” before the inauguration of the fifth presidential term.
SBU: One of the FSB coordinators met with a colonel from Kiev “in neighboring states of Ukraine”
“The operation turned into a failure of the Russian special services, but we must not forget that the enemy is strong and experienced and should not be underestimated,” Maliuk concluded.
The SBU also stated that three FSB agents oversaw the organization of the attack.
One of them – identified by Ukrainians as Dmytro Perlin – has been recruiting “moles” since February 2022 in Ukraine since before the Russians.
Another FSB employee, Oleksii Kornev, allegedly had conspiratorial meetings before the invasion “in neighboring European states” with one of the Ukrainian colonels whose arrest was announced on Tuesday.
