Stealing top secret information and attempting to murder Zelensky? Two Ukrainian colonels arrested, Ukrainian side: Someone promised to give him $5000
On May 7th, the Ukrainian State Security Unit (SBU) announced the arrest of two Ukrainian officials who attempted to assassinate senior Ukrainian officials, including Ukrainian President Zelensky, Director of the Ukrainian Intelligence Agency Budanov, and SBU Director Vasily Maliuk. SBU stated that behind the scenes planners attempted to use missiles and drones to attack Zelensky and the convoy of other target individuals, while the two suspects were trying to obtain information on the location of the target individuals. "As long as the people behind the scenes receive the location coordinates, they will launch an attack."
Zelensky became the target of assassination
It is reported that the two arrested individuals are Andrei Guk and his colleague Delkach. The former was a department head of the Ukrainian National Security Bureau, which was responsible for the safety of high-level officials in Ukraine, and both were colonel level. According to reports, both individuals were arrested on May 4th and charged with treason and planning terrorist attacks, facing life imprisonment. Among them, Gu Ke was accused by SBU of collecting and transmitting top secret information about the target person. There are reports that the two have been investigating who among Zelensky's bodyguards is willing to kidnap and kill Zelensky. Another media quoted the Ukrainian Prosecutor General as saying that one of the suspects also possessed weapons used to launch attacks, such as landmines and attack drones.
The picture shows SBU Director Vasily Maliuk
The Ukrainian side believes that behind these two people is Russia. SBU stated that these two individuals are agents in Moscow's carefully planned intelligence network, which is closely monitoring Zelensky and other government officials. In a statement, Maliuk stated that the assassination plan against Budanov was supposed to take place on May 5th, before Orthodox Easter, and "the murder of Zelensky is said to be a 'gift to Russian President Putin before his inauguration ceremony.'" According to the Ukrainian side, a member of the Russian Federal Security Agency had told one of the arrested Ukrainian officials over the phone that he would be given at least $50000 in compensation after the incident.
As of the time of publication, the Russian authorities have not yet responded to this incident. Some media have pointed out that it is currently impossible to independently verify the authenticity of the Ukrainian statement.
The picture shows Budanov, Director of the Ukrainian Intelligence Agency
This is not the first recent incident involving the murder of Zelensky. According to sources, the Public Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw, Poland announced on April 18th that it had arrested a Polish resident on Polish territory because he "clearly wanted to help Russian military intelligence plan the assassination of Ukrainian President Zelensky.". Dmitry Medvedev, Vice Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, stated at the time that this incident indicated that Zelensky's Western supporters were seeking to eliminate him.
Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Zerensky has repeatedly told the western media that "Russia will try to kill itself". Russian media reported that Kiev has repeatedly claimed to have thwarted the assassination attempt against its leaders and has been hinting at Russia's involvement, but Moscow has repeatedly emphasized that these claims are unfounded.
