Zelensky 'assassination plot foiled' as Ukraine detains two of its own counter-intelligence officers: Russia hoped to locate safehouse and obliterate it with missile and drone strikes

An assassination plot on the life of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has allegedly been 'foiled', according to the Security Service of Ukraine.

Two Ukrainian counterintelligence officers were allegedly detained over 'plans of [Russian intelligence] to eliminate the President of Ukraine and other representatives of the top military and political leadership of the state'.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) claimed on Telegram two colonels were implicated in the plot, allegedly 'leaking' information back to Russia.

SBU investigators allegedly uncovered a drawn out plot to closely follow watched persons before targeting a safehouse with a 'rocket attack'.

'Then they were going to attack the people who remained at the affected area with a drone,' the SBU claimed, without providing evidence.

'After that, the Russians planned to target with another missile, including to destroy traces of the use of the drone.'

The SBU claimed Russia intended to 'eliminate' the head of its own department, Yasyl Malyuk, the head of the State Administration of Ukraine, Kyryll Budanov, and 'other high-ranking officials'.

They claimed to have foiled a plot to assassinate Budanov, a key player in Ukrainian Intelligence, 'before Easter'.

Ukraine celebrated Easter on Sunday, May 5.

Last month, a man was arrested in Poland, accused of plotting to help assassination Zelensky with Russian coordination.

Suspect Paweł K was charged with 'reporting his readiness to act for foreign intelligence', according to the prosecutor's office.

Several attempts on the life of the Ukrainian President have been reported since the ground invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In March 2023, a group of foreign citizens were arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia, Polish government officials told the BBC.

Polish security services reportedly broke up the spy network accused of installing secret cameras at the Rzeszow-Jasionka airport in order to film transport infrastructure used to deliver aid to Ukraine.

Mikhail Podolyak, presidential adviser to Zelensky, claimed previously that the Ukrainian leader had survived more than a dozen attempts in the first two weeks of the war alone. 

As early as March 2022, Ukrainian Pravda reported that the Ukrainian military had 'destroyed' a Chechen outfit tasked with 'eliminating' Zelensky.