Ukraine reports foiled plot to assassinate President Zelenskyy | DW News

Ukraine reports foiled plot to assassinate President Zelenskyy | DW News

the enemy was actively developing plans to eliminate president volodimir zalinski one of the most important tasks of the Russian network was to find agents among the military close to the president who could take Ukraine’s head of state hostage and later kill him that was the spokesman for Ukraine Security Service claiming to have uncovered a Russian plot to kidnap and kill President volodimir zalinski and other senior military and political fig two officers in Ukraine’s government protection unit have reportedly been arrested on suspicion of carrying out the plan which was allegedly orchestrated by Russian intelligence agents now these aren’t the first Ukrainian claims of Russian assassination plots as the war stretches into a third year zinski said that in 2022 alone there had been at least 10 attempts to take his life on the American and I’d now like to welcome John Herbst he was the US ambassador to Ukraine from 203 to 2006 after a long career in the US state department he’s now senior director of the Eurasia Center at the Atlantic Council thank you so much for joining us Mr Ambassador now Ukraine’s Counter Intelligence say they’ve uncovered a plot to kill President zilinski and other high-ranking officials how big do you consider the threat against Ukraine’s senior leadership at this point um I don’t have particulars regarding this Beyond what’s already been put in the media but I do know as your report mentioned that there were numerous efforts to get zilinski by the Russian forces um in the first six plus months of their big Invasion and of course they all failed so this would be a major coup for Moscow were they able to achieve it so certainly the claims are plausible and the two suspects are Colonels in the state guard of Ukraine tasked with protecting top officials now allegedly they were recruited by the FSB before 2022 before The full-scale Invasion launched by Russia but with the Linsky well aware of the Target on his head how does someone like that make it into his security detail look uh the Russians have in been indefatigable going back to the first days of Ukraine’s Independence you know going back to the Early ’90s to make sure they have agents its major positions across the intelligence and Military and security agencies in Ukraine that’s one of the reasons why it was relatively easy for them to go into Crimea in 2014 but since then going back 10 years major efforts were made by Ukraine to fix this problem largely but not entirely successful and we know that U Ukraine excuse me Russia had success in South Mainland Ukraine taking her son it’s at the beginning of the big Invasion because they had turned many of the uh Ukrainian intelligence officials in hon u in their Direction so the notion that people close to relatively close to zilinski even today are Russian agents is not a surprise uh and I believe the ukrainians are Vigilant looking at this that means they have some systems in place to prevent it especially when it happens but it’s not foolproof and we’ve recently seen a big shap up in personnel and some highlevel dismissals in Ukraine can zalinsky trust the people around him I don’t think that there’s any doubt the vast majority of senior officials in Ukraine are loyal to their country they recognize that if Putin achieves his objective of having effective political control in Ukraine there will be massive repression in free Ukraine comparable to the massive repression in occupied Ukraine so they are fighting for their lives and their existence as independent ukrainians that does not mean however that there are not some Russian agents whether by conviction or by subversion or by bribery um how important is volodimir zalinski personally to Ukraine’s war effort that that struggle for survival as an independent country that you just mentioned and what effect would it have if he were in fact assassinated survival excuse me um zalinski has been an absolutely brilliant War leader and his unique qualities uh have been essential to the success Ukraine has enjoyed thus far and I know people don’t talk about Ukraine success too often these days but point of fact that they’ve stood off the world’s either second or third’s greatest conventional military power for uh what 26 27 months that’s a real achievement even if it’s not as strong a performance as some of us would like having said that the Ukrainian people understand the point I’ve already made that moscow’s aim is subjection of Ukraine subjugation of Ukraine which involves serious serious uh nullification of Ukrainian identity which mean ukrainians who want to live in their own country as ukrainians would be severely repressed I believe it would be a disaster for Ukraine if Moscow were able to do something against zalinski I don’t think it would be a mortal disaster for Ukraine that was former US ambassador to Ukraine John herbs thank you so much for your time pleasure

Ukraine says it thwarted a Russian plot to kidnap and assassinate Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukraine’s security service released a message including claims to have uncovered a Russian plot to kidnap and kill President Zelenskyy and other senior military and political figures. Two officers in Ukraine’s government protection unit have reportedly been arrested on suspicion of carrying out the plan, which was allegedly orchestrated by Russian intelligence agents. These aren’t the first Ukrainian claims of Russian assassination plots, as the war stretches into a third year. Zelenskyy said that in 2022 alone there had been at least 10 attempts to take his life.

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