KYIV (Ukraine) : Two Ukrainian security officials have been detained for planning to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, CNN reported citing the country’s State Security Service (SBU).
Two colonels in Ukraine’s government protection unit were accused of carrying out “subversive activities against Ukraine in exchange for financial compensation,” and both of them were charged with treason, one was also charged with preparing a terrorist act, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s office said Tuesday.
The prosecutor’s office said one of the suspects received two drones and ammunition from Russia’s state security service (FSB), which they intended to transfer to another accomplice to carry out an explosion.
The SBU said it had “foiled” the “actively developing plans” to assassinate Zelenskyy and other senior Ukrainian officials, including the head of the SBU, Vasyl Maliuk, and the head of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, 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,” the SBU said.
CNN reported that Zelenskyy has reportedly faced several attempts on his life since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
A woman from the southern Ukrainian region of Mykolaiv was arrested in August 2023 in connection to a plot to assassinate Zelenskyy. She was accused of gathering intelligence about Zelenskyy’s planned visit to Mykolaiv in order to plan a Russian airstrike to kill him. The SBU said it caught the woman “red-handed” as she tried “to pass intelligence to the invaders.”
In April, a Polish man was accused of assisting another alleged Russian assassination plot against Zelenskyy. He was charged with “readiness to act for foreign intelligence against the Republic of Poland,” an offense which carries up to eight years in prison.
Prosecutors said the man agreed to provide information to Russian spies about security at Rzeszow-Jasionka airport, in southeastern Poland near the border with Ukraine, which Zelenskyy is known to use when leaving on foreign trips. The plot was uncovered by Ukrainian authorities and the man was later detained and charged in Poland, CNN said in its report.
Aside from assassination plots, Zelenskyy has experienced a number of close shaves during his many visits to the front lines and cities under Russian bombardment.
During a visit to the coastal city of Odesa in March, a Russian missile exploded close to a convoy carrying Zelenskyy and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
The group felt the impact of the strike, which landed around 500 meters away from the convoy, and saw a “mushroom cloud” of smoke. Five people were killed in the strike, although neither Zelenskyy nor Mitsotakis were injured. (ANI)