Counterintelligence and SBU investigators prevented an attempt by the Russian FSB to eliminate the president of Ukraine and other representatives of the stateʼs top military and political leadership.
These plans were to be implemented by an agent network, which included two colonels of the State Security Department. They "leaked" secret information to the Russians.
One of the tasks of the agent network was to search for executors among the military, close to the protection of the President, who could take the head of state hostage and later kill him.
In addition to Volodymyr Zelensky, the enemy planned to eliminate the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Vasyl Malyuk, the head of GUR Kyrylo Budanov and other high-ranking officials.
For example, they were going to liquidate the head of GUR Kyrylo Budanov before Easter.
According to SBU, the enemyʼs plan was as follows: first, the recruited agent was supposed to observe the movement of a person under guard and pass information to the enemy. According to the coordinates of the house where the official was supposed to be, a rocket attack was planned. Then they were going to attack the people who remained at the affected area with a drone. After that, the Russians planned to target with another missile, including to destroy traces of the use of the drone.
Armament for the agent was provided by Colonel of the State Security Department, who personally brought FPV drones, charges for RPG-7, and MON-90 anti-personnel mines to Kyiv. SBU recorded both the trips of the UDO colonel to another region of Ukraine for drones and explosives, as well as the conversations of the potential perpetrator of the terrorist attack with the "curator" from the FSB.
The Security Service of Ukraine gradually documented the criminal actions of the participants and detained them.
The organization of the terrorist attack was supervised by employees of the 9th Department of the Operational Information Department of the 5th Service:
- Maxim Mishustin;
- Dmytro Perlin;
- Oleksiy Kornev.
In particular, in January 2022, Perlin became the curator of the "moles", which were recruited even before the full-scale invasion of Russia. Until then, his colleague Oleksiy Kornev was "taking care" of them.
Thus, before the start of a full-scale war, Kornev held a series of conspiratorial meetings with the State Security Department colonel on the territory of neighboring European states. Funds for agents were also usually transferred abroad.
The intruders were searched, during which weapons were seized, as well as other evidence of criminal activity.
They were informed of suspicion under the following articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:
- Part 2 of Art. 111 (treason committed under martial law);
- Part 1 of Art. 14, part 2 of Art. 258 (preparation for a terrorist act).
The suspect was remanded in custody. The extras face life imprisonment.