Secret service: Plots against Selenskyj uncovered
Published: Tuesday, May 7th 2024, 15:00
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Ukrainian security authorities claim to have uncovered Russian plans to attack President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and other politicians.
The Ukrainian secret service SBU announced on Tuesday that two officers from the Ukrainian state security department responsible for personal protection had been arrested in this connection. They are said to have provided the Russian domestic intelligence service FSB with information in return for money and were supposed to have taken part in the attack themselves.
"One of the tasks of the FSB network was to find assassins among the military who were close to the president's personal security so that they could take the head of state hostage and then kill him," the SBU statement in Kiev said. According to the information, the officers held the rank of colonels. The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine confirmed the investigation and the arrests. However, there was no independent confirmation of the incident outside the Ukrainian security authorities.
SBU chief Vasyl Malyuk and the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, were also named as possible targets. The SBU allegedly published wiretapped conversations in which the Russian side offered a Ukrainian officer 50,000 US dollars (around 45,300 Swiss francs) for information and participation in an assassination attempt.
It is known that Russia sent special commandos to Kiev with the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 to capture or kill Zelensky. This was not successful. Since then, the endangered president has been protected by the highest security measures in Kiev and on his travels in Ukraine and abroad.
©Keystone/SDA
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