Ukraine’s security services said Tuesday that they had foiled a Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky and other top military and political figures.
Two Ukrainian colonels accused of participating in the plot have been arrested on suspicion of treason.
The Ukrainian domestic intelligence agency, the S.B.U., said in a statement that the plot had involved a network of agents — including the two colonels — that was run by Russia’s Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., the main successor to the K.G.B.
According to the S.B.U., the agents working at Russia’s direction were tasked with identifying people close to Mr. Zelensky’s security detail who could take him hostage and later kill him.
According to the prosecutor’s office, one of the suspects acquired two drones and ammunition from Russia’s State Security Service (FSB) to pass them on to another accomplice to carry out an explosion.
The SBU stated it had “foiled” the “actively developing plans” to assassinate Zelensky and other senior Ukrainian officials, including the SBU’s head, Vasyl Maliuk, and the head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov.
“One of the tasks of the FSB’s agent network was to find perpetrators among the military close to the President’s security who could take the Head of State hostage and then kill him,” claimed the SBU.
Zelensky has apparently endured many assassination attempts since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
A lady from the southern Ukrainian region of Mykolaiv was detained in August 2023 as part of a plot to assassinate Zelensky. She was accused of gathering intelligence about Zelensky’s upcoming visit to Mykolaiv to prepare a Russian attack to assassinate him. The SBU stated that it captured the woman “red-handed” as she attempted “to pass intelligence to the invaders.”
