Two colonels in the State Guard of Ukraine, which protects top officials, were arrested on suspicion of treason for enacting the plan, Ukraine’s state security service said in a prepared statement, which added that the plot was drawn up by Russia’s Federal Security Service.
Washington, D.C. Ukrainian counterintelligence investigators said Tuesday that they thwarted a plan by Russian agents to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other high-level officials.
Two colonels in the State Guard of Ukraine, which protects top officials, were arrested on suspicion of treason for enacting the plan, Ukraine’s state security service said in a prepared statement, which added that the plot was drawn up by Russia’s Federal Security Service.
Moscow did not immediately comment on the reports, which indicate that the colonels were recruited prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“The terrorist attack, which was supposed to be a gift to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin for the inauguration, was indeed a failure of Russian special services,” Vasyl Maliuk, head of Ukraine’s State Security Service, told his agency via Telegram.
The United States and most European Union countries skipped Putin’s 6th term swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday.
The inauguration comes more than two years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said in 2022 that there had been at least 10 attempts to assassinate him. A Polish man was arrested in April on allegations of working with Russia’s GRU military intelligence on an alleged plot to assassinate the Ukrainian president.
Zelenskyy is leading Ukraine’s effort to fight off Russia’s aggression as the war enters its third year.
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