The task of the two senior officers recruited by Russia, even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine was extended on February 24, 2022, was to send the Russian security forces real-time updates on the location of Zelensky and the other senior officials, and to try to recruit other elements who worked with them to help them complete the mission. “One of the tasks they got from theFSB was to look for collaborators in the army who are close to the president’s security circle, who could take him hostage and then assassinate him,” the statement of the Security Service of Ukraine stated.
In addition to the attempted assassination of Zelensky, theFSB The Russian also planned to eliminate Vasil Maliuk, the head of theSBUthe equivalent of the Shin Bet, and Kirilo Budanov, head of theGRU – the intelligence unit of the Ukrainian army. The original plan was to assassinate Budanov even before the Orthodox Easter, which fell last Sunday. B-SBU In Kiev, they defined the plan to assassinate Budanov, who is considered one of the Kremlin’s most wanted targets, as a gift they planned to “give to Putin before his inauguration on Tuesday.” In Ukraine, they claimed that this was a “failure of Russia’s security services”.
According to the announcement published in Ukraine, the plan was to assassinate Budanov, one of the most senior officials in the Ukrainian army, by launching missiles and UAVs at a location where he would be, and the agents recruited were supposed to provide the exact location for this. “A missile attack was planned, then the operatives planned to attack the point Also using UAVs that will eliminate all those who remain alive. After that, it was planned to carry out another missile attack on the point – to eliminate the remnants of the UAV attack.”
The two senior officers were accused of treason, and one of them was also accused of planning an act of terrorism, the prosecution in Kyiv said. In a video message published by the security services of Ukraine, one of the accused says that he received weapons and weapons from the security service of Russia.
This operation to eliminate Zelensky and other senior officials is just one of many that have been attempted in Russia since the beginning of the war two years ago, but it appears to be one of the most carefully planned and executed. Already at the beginning of the war, it was reported that the Russian army sent hundreds of mercenaries of the Wagner group to the streets of Kiev in an attempt to locate the Ukrainian president and execute him. It is also known about several attempts by the Russians to eliminate Budanov and other senior officials.