Ukraine announces foiled plot to assassinate Zelensky and high-ranking figures

Ukrainian security service announced on Tuesday that Ukrainian counterintelligence investigators had thwarted a Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky and a number of prominent military and political figures.

Ukrainian authorities said the alleged Russian plot was scheduled to be carried out in time before Vladimir Putin’s reinstatement as president on Tuesday.

Vasyil Maliuk, the head of Ukraine’s state security service, said the Russian intelligence agents who targeted Zelensky were seeking members of the Ukrainian military close to the president’s safety details to hold him hostage and later kill him.

Two colonels from Ukraine’s State Security Department, which is responsible for protecting senior officials, were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the plan.

The colonels were allegedly recruited prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The operation is said to have been coordinated from Moscow, with three alleged Russian spies as conspirators.

The broader plan was reportedly to locate senior Ukrainian officials and target them with a missile attack, followed by drones and missiles.

Ukraine previously declared knowledge of Russia’s efforts to assassinate its president, and Zelensky confirmed in 2022 that there had been at least 10 attempts to assassinate him.

Prosecutors in Poland said last month that a Polish citizen had been arrested on charges of preparing to spy for the Kremlin’s military intelligence in an alleged plot to assassinate Ukraine’s president.

It’s worth noting that the penalty for the crime of high treason in Ukraine is life imprisonment.