Ukraine’s security service (SBU) announced today that it has arrested two men allegedly working for Russia’s military intelligence service (GRU) and plotting the assassination of Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov and head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service Kirill Budanov.
Ukrainian authorities have foiled a plot attributed to the GRU to kill Reznikov, Budanov and a well-known Ukrainian activist.
The Reuters agency emphasizes that it is unable to verify the claims of the Ukrainian security service.
There has been no official reaction so far from the Kremlin or Russian media.
The two arrested – one a resident of Luhansk, which is under the control of Moscow-backed separatists, and the other a resident of Kiev – were offered $150,000 by Russian middlemen, according to the SBU.
The man from the Luhansk region entered Ukraine from Belarus and was arrested in the city of Kovel (in the north-west) together with his partner from Kyiv, the relevant announcement said.
Since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, security measures for Ukraine’s top officials have been draconian. Several checkpoints have been set up in the capital, Kyiv, and sandbags are being piled at the windows and entrances of government buildings.
It is recalled that a few weeks ago the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed the head of the SBU and the general prosecutor, as part of a broad purge operation.
Source: Capital
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