Ukrainian President Zelenskyy fires bodyguard chief after assassination plot foiled
KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday fired the pinnacle of the division answerable for his private safety after two of its officers have been detained this week over an alleged assassination plot.
Zelenskyy revealed a decree to “dismiss Sergiy Leonidovich Rud from the put up of head of the State Safety Division of Ukraine”.
It didn’t state a purpose for Rud’s elimination or title a substitute to the extremely delicate place.
The announcement got here after Ukraine’s SBU safety service introduced Tuesday it had foiled a Russian plot to assassinate Zelenskyy and different senior officers.
It mentioned it had detained two colonels from the bodyguard division on suspicion of passing secret data to Russia’s rival FSB safety service.
Certainly one of them, it alleged, had personally offered rocket rounds, drones and anti-personnel mines for an agent to hold out assaults.
Rud, 47, had headed the division — which oversees the non-public safety of the president, different senior officers and their households — since 2019.
Zelenskyy has been a goal for Russia because it invaded in February 2022. He mentioned final yr that he was conscious of at the very least “5 – 6” foiled assassination plots in opposition to him.
Zelenskyy revealed a decree to “dismiss Sergiy Leonidovich Rud from the put up of head of the State Safety Division of Ukraine”.
It didn’t state a purpose for Rud’s elimination or title a substitute to the extremely delicate place.
The announcement got here after Ukraine’s SBU safety service introduced Tuesday it had foiled a Russian plot to assassinate Zelenskyy and different senior officers.
It mentioned it had detained two colonels from the bodyguard division on suspicion of passing secret data to Russia’s rival FSB safety service.
Certainly one of them, it alleged, had personally offered rocket rounds, drones and anti-personnel mines for an agent to hold out assaults.
Rud, 47, had headed the division — which oversees the non-public safety of the president, different senior officers and their households — since 2019.
Zelenskyy has been a goal for Russia because it invaded in February 2022. He mentioned final yr that he was conscious of at the very least “5 – 6” foiled assassination plots in opposition to him.
