The alleged Russian plot was supposed to be actioned in time for Vladimir Putin’s presidential inauguration on Tuesday, Ukrainian authorities say.
Ukraine’s intelligence service intercepted a Russian plot to homicide President Volodymyr Zelenskyy forward of Vladimir Putin’s re-inauguration this week.
Vasyl Maliuk, the top of the Ukrainian State Safety Service, mentioned in an announcement that Russian intelligence brokers concentrating on Zelenskyy sought out members of the Ukrainian navy near the president’s safety element who may take the chief hostage and later kill him.
Two colonels within the State Guard of Ukraine, which oversees safety for prime officers, have been detained on suspicion of collaborating within the plan.
The colonels are alleged to have been recruited earlier than Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The crime of treason carries a life sentence in Ukraine.
The operation is alleged to have been run from Moscow, with three alleged Russian spies named as co-conspirators.
The broader plan was reportedly to establish the placement of senior Ukrainian officers and goal them with a rocket assault, adopted by drones and missiles.
Ukraine has beforehand claimed data of Russian efforts to kill the Ukrainian chief, and Zelenskyy himself mentioned in 2022 that there had been not less than 10 makes an attempt to kill him on Moscow’s behalf.
Final month, prosecutors in Poland mentioned a Polish nationwide had been arrested on allegations of making ready to spy on behalf of the Kremlin’s navy intelligence in an alleged plot to assassinate the Ukrainian chief.