Apparently, Ukrainian troops prevented an assassination attempt on leaders of the secret service and the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky (44). The Ukrainian authorities announced this on Wednesday.
Accordingly, the Russian leadership around President Vladimir Putin (70) planned the assassination of Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov (36) and Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov (56). The Russian government sent a hit man to Ukraine for this purpose, Wasyl Malyuk of the Ukrainian secret service said in an interview.
The Russians had therefore cooperated with troops in Ukraine. “At some point they decided they were ready to carry out the murder. They paid $100,000 to get the whole thing working. We caught them,” says Malyuk.
Multiple assassination attempts
The actual killer entered Ukraine through a third country. A photo released by the Secret Service would show the alleged killer being arrested. The police handcuffed him. The authenticity of the images and information cannot be independently verified.
According to Malyuk, several murders were planned. “We will not reveal everything so as not to help the enemy. Because they are also learning,” he said. He himself was repeatedly confronted with Russian assassination attempts. “They want to kill not only me, but also other senior officials in our country.”
It is not the first time that high-ranking Ukrainian officials have been targeted by assassins. In March, shortly after the outbreak of war, the Ukrainian government announced that three attempts to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky (44) had been thwarted within days.
For example, a hit squad of the dreaded Chechens was taken out before it even came close to the president. Two attacks by Putin’s mercenary army, the Wagner group, were also repelled.