Ukraine captures Russian agents who organized plot to kill Zelensky

Ukraine’s state security service said it had caught two Russian agents plotting to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and other high-ranking officials as a “gift” to Vladimir Putin, who was sworn in for a new term in office in the Kremlin on Tuesday.

The two men were top officials of the Ukrainian State Guard, recruited by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), who passed on secret information to Moscow, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said in the Telegram app.

They were tasked with finding someone close to the presidential guard who would take Zelensky hostage and later kill him, the SBU statement said, without clarifying at what point the alleged plot had failed.

“The terrorist attack, which was supposed to be a gift to Putin for his inauguration, was in fact a failure of the Russian secret services,” SBU chief Vasyl Maliuk was quoted as saying by his agency Telegram.

There has been no statement from Moscow so far.

The Kremlin declined to comment last month when questioned about the arrest of a man in Poland accused of working with Russian intelligence to prepare a possible assassination attempt on Zelensky.

The Ukrainian leader, who spearheaded his country’s efforts to repel Russia’s more than two-year invasion, said last fall that his security services had foiled at least five Russian assassination plots against him.

The spy group also planned to “eliminate” Maliuk and Kyrylo Budanov, the head of military intelligence, the SBU said.

Budanov’s assassination should have taken place before the Orthodox Easter Sunday, May 5, he added.

The agents were trying to inform the Russian side of Budanov’s whereabouts so they could launch missile and drone attacks there, he said.

One of the detainees was involved in the transportation and storage of drones and explosives for the operation, he added./TheGeopost/