(WatchDogReport.org) – Counterintelligence investigators in Ukraine have reportedly foiled a Russian plan to assassinate the country’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy along with other senior military and political officials.
Two of Ukraine’s State Guard colonels, who work in protecting leading officials, were apprehended and accused of involvement in the plot that was traced back to the Kremlin’s Federal Security Service (FSB). According to a released statement, the colonels were employed before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Vasyl Malyuk, the head of Ukraine’s State Security Service (SBU), stated that the assassination was planned before Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration for his fifth term on May 7.
The majority of E.U. nations and the U.S. announced that they would boycott Putin’s inauguration and refused to send envoys to the event. Canada and the U.K. also stated that they would not send anyone to the ceremony. The Kremlin had extended invitations even to “unfriendly nations” to attend the event. Hungary, Slovakia, and France were set to attend, and French President Emmanuel Macron stated that he had no desire for a regime change in Moscow.
Plots to assassinate Zelenskyy have been commonplace since the invasion in 2022; at the beginning of the war, Russian paratroopers attempted to land in Kyiv with the intention of assassinating Zelenskyy. Malyuk said that he personally oversaw the covert operation to track the latest assassination plot. He added that the planned assassination was intended to be a “gift” to Putin in time for his inauguration. Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s head of military intelligence, and Malyuk himself were also targeted in the plot.
The SBU revealed that the plotters intended to utilize a mole to acquire information on Budanov’s location. The plan was to then attack him using drones, rockets, and anti-tank grenades shortly before Orthodox Easter, which fell on May 5.
According to the SBU, the suspects had aimed to use a mole to get information about his location, which they would then have assaulted using rockets, drones, and anti-tank grenades.
One officer arrested had already purchased anti-personnel mines and drones. The SBU stated that three FSB employees, two of whom were named Oleksiy Kornev and Dmytro Perlin, oversaw the planned assassination and its organization. The two arrested officials are held on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack and treason.
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