Two colonels from Ukraine's State Security Administration detained as Security Service reports plot to assassinate Zelenskyy – photos, video

The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) says it has foiled plans by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to assassinate President Zelenskyy and other members of the country's senior military and political leadership.

Source: SSU; Office of the Prosecutor General

Details: Two colonels from the State Security Administration (SSA) are suspected of treason and aiding and abetting a terrorist attack.

Quote from the SSU: "SSU counterintelligence and investigators have foiled FSB plans to eliminate the President of Ukraine and other representatives of the country's senior military and political leadership.

The plans were to have been implemented by an agent network which was exposed in advance by the SSU with assistance from the SSA leadership. The network, whose activities were overseen by the FSB from Moscow, included two SSA colonels who had been leaking secret information to Russia.

The enemy was actively developing plans to eliminate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. One of the tasks of the FSB's intelligence network was to find perpetrators among the military close to the president's security detail who could take the head of state hostage and then kill him.

In addition to Zelenskyy, the enemy planned to eliminate Vasyl Maliuk, Head of the SSU, Kyrylo Budanov, Head of Ukraine's Defence Intelligence, and other high-ranking officials."

Details: SSU Head Vasyl Maliuk says that only a limited number of people had known about this special operation to expose the FSB agents and he had supervised its progress personally. He added that the attack was to have been "a gift to Putin for his inauguration".

The intelligence service says the agents had intended to assassinate DIU chief Kyrylo Budanov before Easter.

Their plan was as follows: first, the recruited agent was to observe the protected person’s movements and pass on information to the FSB. The coordinates of the house where the official was supposed to be would have been used to launch a rocket attack. Then they would have launched a drone attack on the people who remained at the site of the attack. After that, the Russians planned to launch another rocket, partly to destroy all traces of the drone.

The agent would have been armed by an SSA colonel, who had personally brought FPV drones, RPG-7 (rocket-propelled grenade) charges and MON-90 anti-personnel mines to Kyiv. The SSU recorded the colonel's trips to another region of Ukraine to get the drones and explosives, as well as conversations between the potential terrorist and his FSB handler.

The FSB had selected a house in Kyiv Oblast where a high-ranking Ukrainian official was supposed to be staying as the target of the attack, the Prosecutor’s Office noted.

However, these plans were exposed and documented by the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies before the crime could be committed, and the suspects were detained.

Searches at their residences revealed evidence of criminal activity.

Both suspects have been arrested.

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