Ukrainian authorities have arrested two colonels from the Ukrainian forces who had allegedly collaborated with Russians to plot the assassination of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“The attempt was planned under the supervision of employees of the 5th department of the FSB as a gift to Vladimir Putin for the inauguration,” Ukrainian Secret Service SBU said in a post on Telegram after detaining two “traitor” colonels.
“The enemy was actively developing plans to eliminate President Volodymyr Zelensky,” the SBU added. “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 take the Head of State hostage and later kill him.”
Zelenskyy in March told Fox News chief political anchor and executive editor of “Special Report” Bret Baier that he had avoided five attempts on his life up until that point, describing such plots as “not interesting for me now.”
Colonel Andrei Gun and Colonel Derkach (no first name given) allegedly agreed to help set up the kidnapping of Zelenskyy, with plans to later assassinate him. The colonels agreed to betray their country for $50,000, which Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) handlers teased could increase to $80,000.
Prior to their arrest, the colonels spied on Zelenskyy and provided information to FSB on the presidential guard, as well as Zelenskyy’s movements. Ukraine’s SBU managed to catch one of the colonels as he traveled out to another region of Ukraine allegedly to collect weapons for the operation.
