Ukraine's State Security Service said it has captured two agents of Russia who plotted the assassination of President Volodymyr Zelensky and other top officials as “a gift” to Vladimir Putin as he was sworn in for a new term in the Kremlin on Tuesday.
The two men were colonels of the Ukrainian State Guard, recruited by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), who leaked classified information to Moscow, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said in the Telegram app.
They were instructed to find someone close to the presidential guard who would take Zelenskiy hostage and later kill him, the SBU statement said, without clarifying at what point the alleged plot was foiled.
“The terrorist attack, which was intended as a gift to Putin for the inauguration, was indeed a failure of the Russian special services,” SBU chief Vasyl Maliuk said through his office on Telegram.
There was no immediate comment from Moscow.
The Kremlin declined to comment last month when asked about the arrest in Poland of a man accused of working with Russian intelligence to prepare a possible assassination attempt on Zelensky.
The Ukrainian leader, who has led 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 plots to kill him.
The spy group also planned to “eliminate” Maliuk and Kyrylo Budanov, the head of military intelligence, the SBU said.
Budanov's killing would take place before Orthodox Easter Sunday on May 5, it added.
The agents attempted to inform the Russian side of Budanov's whereabouts so they could carry out missile and drone strikes on the site, the report said. One of the arrested men was involved in transporting and storing drones and explosives for the operation, it added.
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