On the same day as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration, Kyiv has accused Moscow of planning to kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The Ukrainian Security Services (SBU) claimed this Tuesday to have arrested two Russian “agents” and thus dismantled a network whose mission was to kill senior officials of the country, including Zelensky.
According to the SBU, the detainees were infiltrated within the State Protection service. And it points directly at its counterpart in Russia, the FSB. “Counterintelligence and SBU investigators thwarted the FSB’s plans to eliminate the president of Ukraine and other representatives of the military and political command” of Ukraine, the SBU said on Telegram.
A day earlier, the Ukrainian media Straná published that the Ukrainian Security Service had detained a senior official from the State Protection directorate, which is in charge of the personal security of the country’s highest officials, including the president.
This is Andriy Huk, who heads one of the departments of that body, who would be charged with the crime of treason. He is accused of collecting classified information on protected people, including Zelensky, and transferring it to foreign intelligence services. He also arrested an accomplice, an agent from the same body.
This is not the first time that the SBU claims to have dismantled an alleged Russian plot to kill Zelensky. In August 2023, he announced the arrest of a woman from the southern region of Mikolaiv who, according to the security agency, a month earlier was “gathering information” about the visit of the Ukrainian president to that region to plan a Russian air attack.
Last weekend, the Russian Interior Ministry declared Zelensky wanted and captured in connection with a crime under the Russian Criminal Code. It was not specified, however, what crime it would be.
Furthermore, Moscow has repeated in recent months that from May 20, when Zelensky’s current mandate expires, the Ukrainian leader will lack all legitimacy. Martial law is currently in force in Ukraine, and in this situation the presidential elections that were scheduled for March were not held.
This Monday, the Russian Foreign Espionage Service (SVR) published a note saying that “Zelensky has begun to lose the fight for ‘the minds and hearts’ of the Ukrainian people, especially since his legitimacy as president after his term expires on Next May 20th it will be completely lost.”
According to Russian special services, the United States has already set to work to find Zelensky’s replacement. In Moscow they consider that Washington does not care about the figure of the Ukrainian leader, “as long as he is capable of continuing the armed conflict with Russia.”