Ukraine says thwarted Russian-led plot to kill Zelensky

KIEV

Ukraine announced Tuesday it had detained two Ukrainian security officials involved in a plot coordinated by Russia to assassinate senior Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Kiev says that the Ukrainian leader has been targeted by Russia on multiple occasions, including at the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022.

The Security Service of Ukraine said in a statement that it had exposed a network of agents run by Russia's Federal Security Service whose aim was to assassinate Zelensky and other senior Ukrainian political and military officials.

"The network, whose activities were supervised by the FSB from Moscow, included two colonels of the State Security Department who were leaking classified information to Russia," the SBU said.

It said that Russia had worked to identify individuals close to Zelensky's security detail who could take the Ukrainian leader hostage and kill him.

Polish and Ukrainian prosecutors announced last month they had detained a man suspected of aiding a Russian assassination plot on Zelensky.

And the SBU said last August that a woman had been arrested for over a plot of kill the Ukrainian leader by trying to uncover details of his movements outside Kiev.