Russia Ukraine war, page-218319

Kremlin: No comment on Zelenskyy assassination plot

The Kremlin has declined to comment on Ukrainian reports suggesting security services foiled a Russian plot to kidnap and assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and kill other top Kyiv officials (see 9.27am post).

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had no comment on the assertion but added that was unlikely to be accurate information.

https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-russia-news-putin-nuclear-live-updates-kyiv-12541713

The two suspects were colonels in Ukraine’s State Protection Department, roughly the equivalent of the U.S. Secret Service, and were recruited by Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB, according to Ukraine’s State Security Service.
The colonels were tasked with providing the FSB with information about Zelensky and other top officials’ whereabouts and to recruit others who could directly help in the assassinations, the SBU said.

To kill Budanov, the colonels intended to recruit an “agent” from his security detail, who would pass on the coordinates of his location to the FSB, the SBU said.
“A rocket attack was planned,” the SBU said. After this initial attack, the recruited agent was supposed to kill those who were still alive with a drone attack. “After that, the Russians planned to target [the location] with another missile … to destroy traces of the use of the drone,” the SBU said.
Both men started working with the FSB before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the SBU said.