Ukraine Says It Thwarted Russian Plot to Murder Zelensky as ‘Gift’ for Putin
Russian agents plotted to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and top Ukrainian military officials as a “gift” to Vladimir Putin as he’s sworn in for a fifth term—but Ukrainian security officials caught wind of the plan and thwarted the operation.
That’s according to the Security Service of Ukraine, which said Tuesday that two colonels in the State Security Administration were detained after it was discovered they’d been taking orders from Moscow. The two colonels, who have not been identified, were “leaking secret information to Moscow” as Russia’s Federal Security Service developed plans to take out Zelensky, the SBU said in a statement.
The pair was reportedly part of a network of moles operating in Ukraine that was acting on behalf of the FSB. Among other things, the group was tasked with finding someone in Zelensky’s security detail who could take him hostage and then kill him, according to the SBU.