Ukraine says it has foiled a Russian plot to assassinate its president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and other senior officials, using a network of agents who were recruited by Vladimir Putin’s domestic spy agency.
The SBU state security service in Kyiv said the alleged agents had been instructed to find someone close to the presidential guard. The person would take Zelenskiy prisoner – in his office or when he left the building – and then kill him, the SBU said.
Zelenskiy’s murder was intended as a “gift” for Putin, the Russian president, who was inaugurated at the Kremlin on Tuesday for a fifth time, it added. The FSB also hatched a plan to eliminate Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, who is a hated figure in Moscow, and the SBU’s head, Vasyl Maliuk, the SBU said.
The agency said three FSB intelligence officers were behind the operation. It named them as Maxim Mishustin, Dmytro Perlin, and Aleksii Kornev, from the ninth department of the FSB’s fifth service. Perlin handled a network of Ukrainian “moles”, recruited before Russia’s full-scale invasion, it added.
One of the alleged Ukrainian agents was a colonel serving in Ukraine’s state guard service. The colonel held several secret meetings with Kornev before 2022, which took place in a neighbouring European country, it said.
It was unclear when the plot to kill Zelenskiy was discovered, but the SBU suggested preparations were well under way. One of the Ukrainian agents received a call from his FSB handler in February 2022 and the next month was instructed to find someone working in Zelenskiy’s immediate entourage who might kidnap and kill him.
The FSB also instructed its network to gather information on prominent Ukrainian politicians, the SBU said. The agency released what it said was an intercepted telephone call between Perlin and one of his alleged Ukrainian contacts. The Russian spy sketched out a complicated plot to assassinate Budanov.
The operation was supposed to take place before Orthodox Easter. A spotter was to keep watch on a house used by Budanov which the Russians intended to hit with a missile strike. An agent nearby would then attack other people at the site using kamikaze drones. A second missile strike would cover up evidence of a drone attack, Perlin said, according to details published by the SBU on Telegram.
The FSB officer reassured his contact in Kyiv that he would have “20 or 30 minutes” to get away from the scene once “visuals” had been confirmed. Perlin referred to the planned missile as a “big bird” and the drone as a “small bird”. He emphasised: “The order is rocket, drone, rocket.”
The SBU said it recovered drones, warheads and mines from one of the arrested Ukrainian accomplices. He and other members of the alleged network face charges of treason and terrorism. The FSB promised to pay $50,000 if the “business” was successfully carried out, it was said.
The SBU chief, Vasyl Maliuk, was quoted as saying by his agency on Telegram: “The terrorist attack, which was supposed to be a gift to Putin for the inauguration, was indeed a failure of the Russian special services.” Maliuk added: “We must not forget that the enemy is strong and experienced. He cannot be underestimated.”
Moscow had no immediate comment. The Kremlin declined to say anything last month when asked about the arrest in Poland of a man accused of working with Russian intelligence to prepare another possible attempt to assassinate Zelenskiy. The president said last autumn that there have been at least five Russian plots to kill him.
One intelligence source in Kyiv said it was unclear whether top officials in Moscow had authorised the plot. They suggested it may have been the result of an operation by mid-level officers, seeking to impress their bosses. “Possibly they were acting on their own initiative,” the source said.
