Photo copyright: Reuters
May 7, 2024
The Security Service of Ukraine announced that it had uncovered a plan to eliminate President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and the top leadership of the state. This is stated in the statement of the department.
They said there that five FSB agents were preparing to kill the president and other representatives of the Ukrainian government.
As part of the operation, two colonels of the State Security Department, which is responsible for the security of the president, were detained.
The network of agents was overseen from Moscow. According to the SBU, two UDO colonels leaked secret information to the Russians.
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Photo author, SBU
Caption: For several years, the SBU has been following suspects in the preparation of an assassination attempt
In order to carry out the attack, they were looking for executors among the military, close to the president’s security. Zelensky could have been taken hostage and later killed, the SBU said.
In addition to the president, they planned to liquidate the head of the SBU, Vasyl Malyuk, the head of the GUR, Kirill Budanov, and other high-ranking officials. The liquidation of Budanov was going to be carried out before Easter, the special service said.
Kyrylo Budanov previously stated that about ten assassination attempts were being prepared for him. In particular, they poisoned his wife.
Recently, in an interview with the BBC, he said that they are planning an assassination attempt on him, but he assured that nothing will come of it.
Photo author, SBU
How the attempt was supposed to take place
The SBU said that the plan was as follows: first, the agent was supposed to observe the target’s movements and transmit information. According to the coordinates of the place where the target was supposed to be, they planned to launch a missile strike. Then they were going to attack the remaining people with a drone. After that, the Russians planned to target with another missile, including to destroy traces of the use of the drone.
At the same time, the agent was provided with weapons by Colonel UDO, who personally brought drones, charges for RPG-7, and anti-personnel mines to Kyiv. The SBU said that they had recorded his conversations with a “curator” from the FSB.
Photo author, SBU
“A gift to Putin”
Photo author, SBU
Very few people knew about this special operation to uncover the assassination attempt, says Vasyl Malyuk, head of the SBU.
According to him, the terrorist attack was supposed to be a gift to Vladimir Putin before the inauguration.
The SBU named the FSB officers who were responsible for organizing the terrorist attack.
▪️ Maxim Mishustin;
▪️ Dmytro Perlin;
▪️ Aleksii Kornev.
In particular, Perlin, according to the SBU, in January 2022 became the curator of “moles”, who were recruited even before the full-scale invasion of Russia. Until then, his colleague Oleksiy Kornev was “taking care” of them.
Thus, before the start of the full-scale war, Kornev met with the colonel of the UDO on the territory of neighboring European countries.
The detainees were searched. They were informed of the suspicion:
▪️ h. 2 Art. 111 (treason committed under martial law);
▪️ h. 1 Art. 14, Part 2 of Art. 258 (preparation of a terrorist act).
Photo author, SBU
