'Assassination plots' prompt Ukrainian state guard purge

Security service said it had caught two colonels accused of cooperating with Russia in plan to kill Volodymyr Zelensky

- JOE MIDDLETON

The State Security Service (SBU) said last month that it had caught two guard service colonels accused of cooperating with Russia to plot the assassination of the Ukrainian president, military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov and other officials. Mr Zelensky introduced staff to the new head of Ukraine’s state guard, Colonel Oleksiy Morozov, yesterday and said his main task was to ensure that only those who see their future tied with Ukraine could join the agency.

Mr Zelensky said on Telegram: “And, of course, the agency must be cleared of anyone who chooses not Ukraine for themselves or discredits the state guard service.” The guard service provides security for various governement officials.

Mr Zelensky fired Mr Morozov’s predecessor Serhiy Rud in May, two days after the SBU detained agency employees who it said worked for Russia’s Federal Security Service and leaked classified information. There has been no comment from Moscow on the allegations.

In other developments, Russian missiles killed at least four people and wounded 34 others, including two children, in the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk yesterday, regional governor Vadym Filashkin said. “This is one of the largest enemy attacks on civilians recently,” Mr Filashkin wrote on Telegram. Pictures shared alongside his post showed single-storey buildings with shattered windows, damaged rooftops and scattered debris.