Published: 05/07/2024 13:57 | Updated: 07/05/2024 15:50
The Ukrainian security service SBU says it has rolled up a Russian agent network that planned assassinations of Ukrainian leaders, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Two Ukrainian colonels, employed by the Ukrainian security service, have been arrested, the BBC reports.
The SBU states that it has revealed that Russian agents had infiltrated the Ukrainian government’s bodyguards.
According to the SBU, the Russian security service FSB is behind it.
The FSB is said to have been hunting for possible “executioners” in Zelensky’s bodyguard for a long time.
The head of military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, and SBU chief Vasyl Malyuk are also said to have been on the FSB’s murder list.
The plan is said to have been to take Budanov’s life before Orthodox Easter, which this year fell on May 5.
According to the SBU, the group planned to use a “mole” to get information about Budanov’s whereabouts and that he could then be taken away using rockets and drones, the BBC writes.
The attack was to start with a rocket attack, followed by a drone strike that would take out the remaining ones. The plan was thus to end with a new rocket attack to remove the traces of the drone.
One of the officers who was arrested should have already bought drones and anti-personnel mines, according to the SBU.
SBU chief Vasyl Malyuk says the attack was intended to be “a gift to Putin before his inauguration”. Vladimir Putin was sworn in as President of Russia on Tuesday.
The SBU revealed the plan in time, and the suspects are in custody.
