Zelensky fired the head of the State Security Administration of Ukraine

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky fired the head of the State Security Department (SGO) Sergei Rudy following preventing Russian plans to assassinate the head of the country. This was reported on the evening of Thursday, May 9, by several Ukrainian media outlets, citing the relevant presidential decree. The reason for the dismissal was not given.

Since November 2019, 47-year-old Sergei Rud has served as head of the UGO, an agency that protects officials and reports directly to the president. Before this, Rud held various positions in the departments of personal security and work with personnel of the same department, and worked at the Institute of Civil Defense of the Kyiv National University.

SBU announced the prevention of an assassination attempt on Zelensky

On May 7, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced the exposure of a network of agents of the fifth service of the FSB of the Russian Federation, who were preparing an assassination attempt on the President of Ukraine. “Counterintelligence and SBU investigators thwarted the FSB’s plans to eliminate the President of Ukraine and other representatives of the country’s top military-political leadership,” the Ukrainian intelligence service said in a statement.

The group, whose activities were supervised by the FSB from Moscow, allegedly included two UGO colonels. Both suspects were detained.

According to the SBU, one of the tasks of the FSB agent network was to search for executors among the military close to the president’s security who might take Zelensky hostage and subsequently kill him. In addition, the department claims, the FSB planned the murders of SBU Chairman Vasily Malyuk, head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense Kirill Budanov and other high-ranking officials.

The SBU announced the plans of the attackers

According to the Ukrainian intelligence service, the plan was as follows: initially, the recruited agent was supposed to observe the movements of the protected person and report them to the FSB. It was planned to launch a missile strike on the building where the official was supposed to be located, and then attack with a drone the people remaining at the scene of the attack. After this, the Russians planned to strike with another missile, including to destroy traces of the drone’s use.

The names of the detained colonels of the State Security Administration are not disclosed. At the same time, the publication RBC-Ukraine, citing sources in the special services, names the name of one of the detainees. According to the publication, this is Andrei Guk, he headed one of the departments of the State Security Administration.

Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Zelensky and other representatives of the Ukrainian government, according to Kyiv, have already had several assassination attempts.