1 of 3 | Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is seen during a joint press conference with US President Joe Biden after their meeting at the White House in Dec. 2023. Zelensky admits he has been the target of multiple attempts to take his life. File photo by Yuri Gripas/UPI | License Photo
The security service of war-torn Ukraine on Tuesday revealed that it had foiled an attempted assassination of President Volodymyr Zelensky and other top officials by two undercover Ukrainian security officials working for Russia, officials have confirmed.
“[Russia] was actively developing plans to eliminate” Zelensky and other officials, the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, had confirmed Tuesday on Telegram. Advertisement
The two undercover Russian agents, now in custody, were Ukrainian military colonels who were allegedly working for Russia’s Federal Security Service — known as the FSB — and leaking information to Ukraine’s enemy as part of a network of agents working against Ukraine.
“A limited number of people knew about our special operation, and I personally monitored its progress,” the head of the SBU, Vasyl Malyuk, said.
The SBU said one of the FSB’s goals “was to search for executors among the military close to the protection of [Zelensky],” who could take him hostage “and later kill him.”
In addition to Russia’s plan to “eliminate” Zelensky, it included Malyuk and the chief of the State Administration of Ukraine, Kyryll Budanov, plus other high-ranking Ukrainian officials, according to the SBU. Advertisement
On Saturday, the Russian Interior Ministry had placed Zelensky on a criminal “wanted” list for unspecified charges.
Described as a “terrorist attack” by Malyuk, “which was supposed to be a gift to Putin before the inauguration, was actually a failure of the Russian special services,” he said.
The two colonels are in custody and if found guilty by a Ukranian court, they face the likelihood of life in jail for “treason committed under martial law” and “preparation for a terrorist act,” according to Ukraine’s government.
Malyuk did admit Russia “is strong and experienced” and “cannot be underestimated,” but vowed that Ukraine “will continue to work ahead of time, so that every traitor receives the well-deserved court sentences.”
The planned attack was supervised by Maxim Mishustin, Dmitry Perlin, and Alexey Kornev, who are known employees Russia’s FSB, according to the SBU.
A spokesperson for the Ukrainian State Security Department told Politico this particular plot to kill Zelensky was more unique than the other handful of attempts so far, including one in August 2023 by a woman.
“But it is the first time such a high-ranking official of the state security department” got identified as the “enemy’s moles,” Artem Dehtiarenko told Politico. Advertisement
Perlin, it is alleged, in January 2022 had “became the curator of the ‘moles,’ who were recruited even before the full-scale invasion of Russia,” but until then the “moles” were being “taking care” of by Kornev, who “held a series of conspiratorial meetings” with the Ukranian colonel “on the territory of neighboring European states,” where “funds or agents were also usually transferred abroad.”
