Zelenskyy fires head of Ukraine’s state guards in wake of foiled assassination plot

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed the head of the state guards on Thursday, two days after two of its members were accused of plotting to assassinate the president.

Zelenskyy issued a decree dismissing Serhiy Rud. No successor was identified.

Its state security service (SBU) said this week it had caught two men, colonels in the state guard service, accused of plotting the assassination of Zelenskyy and other top officials.

The SBU said the assassinations were to have been a “gift” for Vladimir Putin as he was sworn in for a new term in the Kremlin on Tuesday.

It said the men were recruited by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) who leaked classified information to Moscow.

The men, the SBU said, were tasked with finding someone close to the presidential guard who would take Zelenskyy hostage and later kill him. There was no indication at what point the alleged plot had been foiled. Moscow issued no comment on the SBU’s statement.

The president, the very prominent leader of his country’s defence more than two years into the Russian invasion, said last year that his security services had foiled at least five Russian plots to assassinate him.

The SBU said the spy group also planned to kill SBU head Vasyl Maliuk and Kyrylo Budanov, the military intelligence agency’s head.