According to the State Security Service, two colonels were arrested after he foiled alleged plans to assassinate Zelensky and other senior officials.
Ukrainian counterintelligence investigators claim to have foiled a Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said.
On Tuesday, the SBU said in a statement that it had uncovered a network of Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) agents aimed at assassinating Zelensky and other senior Ukrainian political and military officials.
Two colonels of Ukraine’s State Guard, which protects top officials, were arrested on suspicion of treason to implement the plan drawn up by Russia, the SBU said.
Russia has been working to identify people close to Zelensky’s security guard, the statement said, adding that the colonels were recruited before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The two were tasked with finding someone close to the presidential guard who would take Zelensky hostage and later kill him, the SBU statement said. It was not specified when the alleged plot was foiled.
The statement quoted SBU chief Vasyl Maliuk as saying that the plot foresaw an attack before Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration for his fifth term on Tuesday.
“The terrorist attack, which was supposed to be an inauguration gift to Putin, was in fact a failure of the Russian intelligence services,” Maliuk said on the agency’s Telegram channel.
Maliuk said he personally oversaw the top-secret operation to prosecute the conspiracy.
There was no immediate comment from Russia.
There is also a plan to “eliminate” Maliuk and Kyrylo Budanov, the head of military intelligence, the SBU said. Budanov’s murder should have taken place before May 5, Orthodox Easter Sunday, it said.
The men tried to inform the Russians about Budanov’s whereabouts so that they could carry out missile and drone attacks there, it was said. One of the arrested men was involved in the transport and storage of drones and explosives for use, it was said.
Polish and Ukrainian prosecutors announced last month that they had arrested a man suspected of supporting a Russian assassination attempt on Zelensky.
In August, Ukrainian intelligence said a woman had been arrested over a plot to assassinate the Ukrainian leader by trying to uncover details of his movements outside the capital Kiev.
Zelensky said there have been at least 10 assassination attempts on him in 2022, as the war with Russia enters a third year.