The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, fired the head of the body responsible for his protection after two of his agents were arrested in connection with an alleged assassination plot against him. The suspects were accused of treason; one was also accused of planning a terrorist act.
The dismissal of the head of the State Guard Service (UDO), Serhii Rud, was revealed in a decree published on the presidential website. According to Ukrainian state media Ukrinform, he was appointed Zelensky’s main bodyguard in October 2019, and there is still no replacement for the role.
The UDO is tasked with ensuring the security of the president and senior government officials, as well as the protection of administrative buildings.
Russian conspiracy
Earlier this week, Ukrainian intelligence services arrested two UDO agents believed to be involved in a Russian-orchestrated plot to assassinate Zelensky. They were accused of carrying out “subversive activities against Ukraine in exchange for financial compensation,” according to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s office.
Both colonels were accused of treason; one was also accused of preparing a terrorist act.
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Ukraine’s State Security Service, the SBU, said agents working for Russia had infiltrated the guard service and planned to kill both Zelensky and other senior government officials.
“Counterintelligence and SBU investigators thwarted the plans of FSB (Russian security service) to eliminate the President of Ukraine and other representatives of the top military and political leadership,” the Ukrainian intelligence agency said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
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Russian agents, according to the SBU, would have looked for volunteer “executors” among Zelensky’s bodyguards who could kidnap and kill him.
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The FSB, created in 1995, is the legal successor to the KGB, the spy agency of the former Soviet Union.
Assassination attempts
According to Ukrainian government officials and local media, President Zelensky survived a series of assassination and kidnapping attempts by Russian agents, or pro-Russian Ukrainian separatists, during the war in Ukraine.
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It was reported that more than 400 Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group were in Kiev in late February 2022, with orders to assassinate Zelensky and destabilize the government, so that Russia would take control of the country.
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In April this year, a man was arrested in Poland on suspicion of a plot to kill the Ukrainian leader. He was reportedly in charge of gathering information about the Rzeszow-Jasionka airport, which is used by Zelensky, and was also accused of helping Russian intelligence services plan the assassination of the president of Ukraine.
