Ukraine’s security service claims to have foiled a plot to assassinate the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, after the arrest of a woman suspected of gathering intelligence about his movements.
The unnamed woman was said by the security service of Ukraine, known as the SBU, to be gathering information about Zelenskiy’s visit to the southern Mykolaiv region, on which it was said Russia was planning to unleash a major air assault.
On his Telegram channel, Zelenskiy said the head of the SBU had updated him on the “fight against traitors”.
A drone attack on Moscow earlier this year, attributed to Ukraine’s military, had been described by the Kremlin as an attempt to assassinate Vladimir Putin, for which it was claimed there would be reprisals.
At the start of the war, Zelenskiy had also said he was aware that Putin wanted him dead. More than 400 Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group were reported to have been in Kyiv in February 2022 with orders to kill Zelenskiy as part of a “decapitation strategy”.
Aides claimed in March last year that Zelenskiy had survived three assassination attempts in one week and that there had been dozens more.
The SBU said Ukraine had become aware of the latest plot ahead of time and that additional security measures were put in place during Zelenskiy’s visit.
The security services alleged the suspect was helping Russia prepare a “massive airstrike on the Mykolaiv region”.
The SBU said that though the individual “tried to establish the time and list of locations of the approximate route of the head of state in the territory of the region”, agents had obtained information about the “subversive activities of the suspect” and subsequently introduced additional security measures.
A blurred image of the suspect being detained by masked officers in a kitchen was published by the SBU along with phone messages and handwritten notes.
The woman was allegedly seeking information about the location of electronic warfare systems and warehouses with ammunition.
The SBU said its officers kept monitoring the suspect to get more information on her Russian handlers and her assignments.
Officers then caught the woman “red-handed” as she attempted to pass intelligence data to Russian secret services, the SBU said.
The woman was said to live in the small southern town of Ochakiv in the Mykolaiv region and to have formerly worked in a store at a military base there.
She allegedly photographed locations and tried to get information from personal contacts in the area.
She may face a charge of unauthorised dissemination of information about the movements of weapons and troops. If convicted, she could serve up to 12 years in prison.
