The Ukrainian security service has reported exposing a “network of agents” preparing assassination attempts on top state officials
Two officers of the State Security Administration who were allegedly part of a conspiracy to assassinate top government and military officials were arrested on Tuesday, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) has announced.
The agency, which is Kiev’s successor to the Soviet-era KGB, claimed in a post on Telegram that the two suspects were planning to kill Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, SBU head Vasily Malyuk, and the national intelligence chief, Kirill Budanov, among others.
The Strana news outlet has identified the detainees as the head of the State Security Administration, Andrey Guk, and his colleague, surnamed Derkach. Both are said to have been arrested simultaneously on Saturday.
The SBU says the men were agents of a network which it alleges was being orchestrated from Moscow, and were conducting surveillance of Zelensky and other government officials with intent to coordinate a missile strike and a kamikaze drone attack on them.
Guk was specifically accused of collecting and transmitting classified information on protected persons, including Zelensky.
The assassinations of some of the officials were reportedly supposed to take place before Orthodox Easter on May 5, with the murder of Zelensky supposedly being planned as a “gift to Putin before his inauguration” on Tuesday, Malyuk claimed in a statement quoted by the SBU.
The detainees have been charged with treason and preparing a terrorist attack and now face life in prison.