Russian plan to kill Zelensky has been foiled, Kiev says

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) says it has foiled a Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky and other senior Ukrainian officials.

Two colonels of the Ukrainian government’s protection unit were arrested.

The SBU claimed to be part of a network of Russian State Security Service (FSB) agents.

They reportedly searched among Mr. Zelensky’s bodyguards for willing “enforcers” to kidnap and kill him.

Other targets included Kyrylo Budanov, head of military intelligence, and Vasyl Malyuk, head of the SBU, the agency added.

The group had reportedly planned to kill Mr Budanov before Orthodox Easter, which fell on May 5 this year.

According to the SBU, the conspirators’ goal was to use a mole to obtain information about his whereabouts, which they then attacked with missiles and drones.

One of the officers who was later arrested had already purchased drones and anti-personnel mines, the SBU said.

SBU chief Vasyl Malyuk said the attack was “a gift to Putin before the inauguration” – referring to Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who was sworn in for his fifth term as president at the Kremlin on Tuesday.

The operation turned out to be a failure for the Russian special services, Mr. Malyuk said.

“But we must not forget – the enemy is strong and experienced, he must not be underestimated,” he added.

The two Ukrainian officials are being held on suspicion of treason and preparing a terrorist attack.

The SBU said three FSB employees monitored the organization and the attack.

One of them, named Dmytro Perlin, had already recruited “moles” before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Another FSB employee, Oleksiy Kornev, is said to have held “conspiratorial” meetings “in neighboring European states” with one of the Ukrainian colonels arrested on Tuesday before the invasion.

Russian forces have reportedly been trying to kill Mr. Zelensky since the start of the war.