Ukraine’s safety companies stated on Tuesday that they’d foiled a Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky and different prime army and political figures. Two Ukrainian colonels accused of collaborating within the plot have been arrested on suspicion of treason.
The Ukrainian home intelligence company, the S.B.U., stated in a press release that the plot had concerned a community of brokers — together with the 2 colonels — that was run by Russia’s Federal Safety Service, or F.S.B., the principle successor company to the Okay.G.B. In line with the Ukrainian company, the brokers working at Russia’s path had been tasked with figuring out folks near Mr. Zelensky’s safety element who may take him hostage and later kill him.
The company’s assertion stated the opposite prime Ukrainian officers focused within the plot included Vasyl Malyuk, the top of the S.B.U., and Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the top of Ukraine’s army intelligence company. The Ukrainian claims couldn’t be independently verified.
It isn’t the primary time that Ukraine has reported a possible assassination try geared toward its prime leaders. Mr. Zelensky himself stated in an interview with an Italian tv channel earlier this 12 months that his safety companies had advised him of greater than 10 such makes an attempt.
Ukraine’s safety companies provided few particulars about earlier assassination plots. However this time, the company went to some size in its assertion to explain how the Ukrainian officers had been to be killed.
The companies stated the 2 colonels accused within the plot belonged to the State Safety Administration, which protects prime officers. They’d been recruited earlier than Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, based on the assertion, which recognized three F.S.B. members — Maxim Mishustin, Dmytro Perlin and Oleksiy Kornev — as working the operation from Moscow.
The assassination of Common Budanov, the companies stated, was deliberate to happen earlier than Orthodox Easter, which was celebrated on Could 5. The F.S.B.’s community of brokers in Ukraine was tasked with observing and passing on details about Common Budanov’s whereabouts, the Ukrainian safety companies stated. As soon as his location had been confirmed and communicated, he would have been focused in a rocket and drone assault.
Weapons for the assault had been offered to one of many colonels, together with assault drones, ammunition for a rocket launcher and anti-personnel mines, based on the safety companies and Ukraine’s prosecutor normal. The colonel was to cross the weapons to different brokers to hold out the assault, the Ukrainian assertion stated.
Common Budanov’s spouse was poisoned late final 12 months, based on the Ukrainian army intelligence company, in an incident that led to widespread hypothesis that Russia was stepping up efforts to focus on Ukraine’s senior management.
The S.B.U. additionally reported final month that it had arrested, in cooperation with Polish safety companies, a Polish man who it stated had provided to spy for Russia as a part of a plot to assassinate Mr. Zelensky.
Russia made no instant remark about Tuesday’s allegations.
