Ukrainian officials are taking credit for stopping an assassination attempt on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Ukraine’s state security service said Tuesday that two colonels in the State Guard of Ukraine were held for plotting to carry out a plan by Russia’s Federal Security Service to assassinate Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian officials, per Newsmax.
The State Guard of Ukraine is in charge of protecting top Ukrainian officials.
The colonels joined the State Guard before Ukraine’s war with Russia started in February 2022, according to a statement, adding, they were arrested on suspicion of treason, which carries a life sentence.
Vasyl Maliuk, the head of the State Security Service, was quoted as saying they believed an attack would happen before Russian President Vladimir Putin started his fifth term Tuesday.
Maliuk said he was in charge of the operation to track the plot.
Claims of assassination plots against Zelenskyy have happened previously. In 2022, Zelenskyy said there have been at least 10 assassination attempts on him.
Last month, officials in Poland announced that a Polish man was arrested on claims he was ready to spy for military intelligence in Russia on an alleged plot to kill Zelenskyy, per the outlet.
According to Ukrainian officials, Russian intelligence agents looked for members of the Ukrainian military who guarded Zelenskyy and were willing to take him hostage and kill him.
Moscow ran the operation, Ukrainian officials said, while naming three alleged Russian spies involved in the conspiracy.
Another plan involved identifying where senior Ukrainian officials were and attack them rockets, drones and missiles.
