Zelenskyy has previously said he has survived more than 10 assassination attempts. “But it is the first time such a high-ranking official of the state security department has become [the] enemy’s moles,” Artem Dehtiarenko, SBU spokesman, told POLITICO.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been carrying out a full-scale invasion of Ukraine for more than two years. Since the start, Russian officials and security services have launched intelligence operations against Ukraine, aiming to delegitimize and overthrow Zelenskyy and his government, while sowing panic among Ukraine’s troops and population who are exhausted by the war.
Both colonels were detained by Ukraine’s security service. If found guilty in court, they face life in prison for plotting a terror attack and state treason.
“One of the tasks of the FSB intelligence network was to search for executors among the military close to the protection of the president, who could first take him hostage and later kill him,” the SBU press service said in a statement.
Besides Zelenskyy, a group of FSB agents including the defector colonels were planning to assassinate spymaster Budanov, Kyiv said.
In that operation, a covert agent in Ukraine was supposed to track Budanov’s movements and pass the information to Russian operatives from the FSB, it continued.
