Ukraine has arrested two high-ranking security officials implicated in a Russian conspiracy to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to the Ukrainian state security service (SBU). The two colonels, part of Ukraine’s government protection unit, were allegedly engaged in subversive activities against the state in return for financial rewards, as stated by Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s office on Tuesday.
The officials face charges of treason, with one of the colonels also accused of preparing a terrorist act. The prosecution detailed that one suspect had acquired two drones and ammunition from the Russian state security service (FSB), which were intended to be handed over to another accomplice for executing an explosion.
The SBU disclosed that it had intercepted plans actively being developed to eliminate Zelensky along with other top Ukrainian leaders, such as SBU head Vasyl Maliuk and Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Defence Intelligence of Ukraine. A critical aspect of the FSB’s strategy involved recruiting military personnel close to the President’s security to abduct and subsequently murder him.
This recent plot is one of several assassination attempts on President Zelensky following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In a related incident in August 2023, a woman was arrested in Mykolaiv, southern Ukraine, linked to another plot to assassinate Zelensky by coordinating a Russian airstrike during his planned visit to the region. She was caught attempting to transmit intelligence to Russian forces.
