Now the president’s purges

Volodymyr Zelensky does not forgive and orders the purge of the State Guard after the plot to assassinate him. Ukraine’s president has asked the new head of the Security Service, which provides escorts to many important government figures, to clean up the ranks after two of his officers were accused of plotting to assassinate senior Ukrainian officials.

Last month, the State Security Service (SBU) said it had arrested two service officers accused of collaborating with Russia in the assassination of Zelensky and other officials, including military intelligence chief Kirilo Budanov. The Ukrainian Security Service said that the killing of the Ukrainian leader would be a “gift” for Vladimir Putin’s fifth term in the Kremlin.

Introducing Colonel Oleksiy Morozov to staff today, Zelensky said his main goal was to ensure that “only those who see their future tied to Ukraine” join the agency. “And of course, the agency must be purged of anyone who does not choose Ukraine for themselves or discredits the State Guard Service,” the president wrote on Telegram.

In May, Zelensky fired Morozov’s predecessor, Serhiy Rud, two days after the Ukrainian Security Service arrested members of the agency it said worked for Russian intelligence and provided classified information to the enemy.

The failed plan, according to Kiev, which was supervised by the FSB from Moscow, should have led to the liquidation of Zelensky and other prominent figures. The Federal Security Service, in particular, would have tried to recruit soldiers, who were to physically carry out the operation, from among the departments used to protect the president. The plan was supposed to include kidnapping Zelensky and then eliminating him. Along with the president, the head of the security services Vasyl Malyuk, intelligence chief Budanov and other high-ranking and military officials were under fire.

The plan, according to the Ukrainian services, envisages a long and precise surveillance activity with the collection of information to determine the main habitat of other targets. Then the coordinates will make it possible to carry out a missile attack without failure. After the raid, the affected area would have been accessible by drones, which would have carried out the second attack according to a scenario already tested by Russia in several cities in Ukraine. The operation could then have ended with the launch of a second missile, aimed at further devastation in the area and removing, if possible, traces related to the use of drones.