It is the story of Russian spies who infiltrate the ranks of the Ukrainian president’s security services. In their viewfinder, three targets. The commander of the Ukrainian military intelligence services, Kyrylo Budanov, Lieutenant General Vassyl Maliouk, head of the SBU, the Ukrainian security services and the head of state himself Volodymyr Zelensky. Revelations about this plot were delivered by a senior SBU official on condition of anonymity, to our colleagues at Times.
The operation is very sensitive. If successful, what better gift could the FSB offer Vladimir Putin a few days before the celebrations of the victory of May 9, 1945? This is why it took the spies several months to prepare the ground in order to best execute the plan concocted by Sergei Korolev, number one in the Russian secret services. A “favorite” of the head of the Kremlin, according to the Times, described by Ukraine’s military intelligence branch as “Putin’s wolfdog.” Among his prerogatives: eliminating the Kremlin leader’s rivals inside and outside Russian borders.
The henchmen of “Putin’s wolfdog”
And to carry out these dirty tasks, Sergei Korolev has his “puppets”. The first, Andreï Huk, a colonel born in Russia, member of Zelensky’s close guard. Suspected by Ukrainian investigators of working under the orders of the FSB since 2014, Colonel Oleksandr Derkach would have been recruited for this mission. And according to the SBU, a third man: the anonymous “assassin”, a key player in the operation.
It was he who, in the early morning of Saturday May 4, installed an improvised drone control center in a basement in the kyiv region. “When you see a convoy of a black Toyota Land Cruiser and a black minibus arriving, provide their contact details.” Inside the convoy was Ukrainian Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, the first target of the Russians who planned to launch a ballistic missile when the coordinates were transmitted.
Hidden in his lair, the operator is therefore responsible for sending two drones. A first to film the attack, and a second, carrying the grenade. Another device, intended to eliminate emergency services and hide evidence of the attack, is supposed to be launched around twenty minutes later.
The head start of the Ukrainian secret services
A detailed operation which could have been a success if the Ukrainian intelligence services had not foiled it. Because without even realizing it, the architects of the plot had been monitored for months by kyiv. Thus communications between the “assassin” and his agents were intercepted by the SBU. Also targeted, the head of the SBU, Vassyl Maliouk immediately informed General Kyrylo Boudanov. Everyone is quickly arrested.
During their interrogation, the soldiers prove surprisingly talkative. Both admit to working on behalf of the Russians. And even reveal new information about a previous hostage-taking attempt by Volodymyr Zelensky. “At the very beginning of the war in Ukraine”, in February 2022, Andreï Huk would have been charged with a mission: to identify among the Ukrainian state protection agents, the Russian relays, and to assassinate the others, demonstrating too much loyalty to kyiv. This, with the aim of kidnapping the Ukrainian president, and forcing him to capitulate to the Russian invader in a video recording.
According to information revealed in the Times, from the first days of the invasion, Colonel Huk allegedly tried to convince other presidential bodyguards to lay down their arms when the Russians arrived. “We are not armed forces, we do not have the particular mission of defending Ukraine and I am not paid enough to organize the Brest fortress here,” he insisted, in reference to the defense of the city. Breton in 1941 by the Red Army against a surprise attack by the Nazis.
Threats ignored by his colleagues in the president’s close protection, who saw it as a purely emotional reaction from the man who was then their superior, and who presented himself as a defender of the Ukrainian nation. “He lied to everyone, even to his wife who thought her husband was defending his country, and to his children, convinced that their father was a Ukrainian hero,” the officer tells our English colleagues. Pro-European, and supporter of a victory for Ukraine, his family had since taken refuge within the European Union to flee the conflict.