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Ukraine’s safety providers stated on Tuesday that that they had foiled a Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky and different high navy and political figures. Two Ukrainian colonels accused of collaborating within the plot have been arrested on suspicion of treason.
The Ukrainian home intelligence company, the S.B.U., stated in a press release that the plot had concerned a community of brokers — together with the 2 colonels — that was run by Russia’s Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., the primary successor company to the Ok.G.B. According to the Ukrainian company, the brokers working at Russia’s route have been tasked with figuring out individuals near Mr. Zelensky’s safety element who might take him hostage and later kill him.
The company’s assertion stated the opposite high Ukrainian officers focused within the plot included Vasyl Malyuk, the top of the S.B.U., and Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the top of Ukraine’s navy intelligence company. The Ukrainian claims couldn’t be independently verified.
It is just not the primary time that Ukraine has reported a possible assassination try geared toward its high leaders. Mr. Zelensky himself stated in an interview with an Italian tv channel earlier this yr that his safety providers had advised him of greater than 10 such makes an attempt.
Ukraine’s safety providers supplied few particulars about earlier assassination plots. But this time, the company went to some size in its assertion to explain how the Ukrainian officers have been to be killed.
The providers stated the 2 colonels accused within the plot belonged to the State Security Administration, which protects high officers. They had been recruited earlier than Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, based on the assertion, which recognized three F.S.B. members — Maxim Mishustin, Dmytro Perlin and Oleksiy Kornev — as operating the operation from Moscow.
The assassination of General Budanov, the providers stated, was deliberate to happen earlier than Orthodox Easter, which was celebrated on May 5. The F.S.B.’s community of brokers in Ukraine was tasked with observing and passing on details about General Budanov’s whereabouts, the Ukrainian safety providers stated. Once his location had been confirmed and communicated, he would have been focused in a rocket and drone assault.
Weapons for the assault have been offered to one of many colonels, together with assault drones, ammunition for a rocket launcher and anti-personnel mines, based on the safety providers and Ukraine’s prosecutor basic. The colonel was to cross the weapons to different brokers to hold out the assault, the Ukrainian assertion stated.
General Budanov’s spouse was poisoned late final yr, based on the Ukrainian navy intelligence company, in an incident that led to widespread hypothesis that Russia was stepping up efforts to focus on Ukraine’s senior management.
The S.B.U. additionally reported final month that it had arrested, in cooperation with Polish safety providers, a Polish man who it stated had supplied to spy for Russia as a part of a plot to assassinate Mr. Zelensky.
Russia made no instant remark about Tuesday’s allegations.
