Woman ‘preparing assassination of President Zelensky’ is arrested in Ukraine
A woman has been arrested in Ukraine for allegedly plotting the murder of Volodymyr Zelensky.
The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) detained the unnamed woman and began questioning her about her alleged involvement in a plot to assassinate the Ukrainian president during his visit to the port city of Mykolaiv last month.
The woman was a Russian informant gathering intelligence about Mr Zelensky’s planned visit, SBU officials said.
She is accused of trying to find out when and where the president was traveling and allegedly filming the locations of Ukrainian facilities, including munitions depots and electronic warfare systems.
The woman was caught red-handed by authorities trying to pass the collected information to Russia, the SBU claimed. If convicted, she could face up to 12 years in prison.
The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) detained the unnamed woman and began questioning her about her involvement in a plot to kill Zelensky during his visit (pictured) to the port city of Mykolaiv last month.
Zelensky rewards Ukrainian servicemen as he visits a military hospital near Mykolaiv
The suspect lived in the Ukrainian city of Ochakiv, a small town in the southern region of Mykolaiv. She is said to have been a former saleswoman in a store for one of the region’s military units.
The SBU claims it gathered the information as part of a plot to launch an airstrike on Mykolaiv and kill Zelensky.
When detectives learned of the woman’s plans, “additional security measures” were taken to protect Zelensky, officials said.
“The Ukrainian security service continued to document the criminal actions of the enemy accomplice to obtain new data on its Russian ‘curators’ and the tasks received,” they said in a statement on Monday.
Zelensky has been a prime target for the Kremlin since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, when he refused to leave Kiev as Moscow’s troops approached.
It came when Russian shelling hit a nine-story residential building in the city of Kherson, killing one person and injuring four others.
Regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said Kherson endured a “tough night” as the Russians “covered the central part of the city with fire.”
In the northeastern province of Kharkiv, a 57-year-old woman was killed and four people injured in Russian shelling.
Zelensky has been a prime target for the Kremlin since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, when he refused to leave Kiev as Moscow’s troops approached.
Ukrainian soldiers fire the M777 artillery at their artillery position
It comes after Ukraine damaged two key bridges leading to Russian-occupied Crimea with ‘Storm Shadow missiles supplied by the UK’.
The Chonhar Bridge connecting mainland Ukraine to Crimea was damaged and a small bridge across the Tonky Strait was also shelled.
Continued attacks by Zelensky’s forces are making it increasingly difficult for Putin’s invading army to get on and off the peninsula that Russia captured from Ukraine in 2014.
Russia is also facing an uprising by its own nationals – with anti-Putin militias claiming to have blown up a fuel and ammunition depot in occupied Ukraine.
The Legion of Freedom of Russia – which was formed in the spring of 2022 to fight for Ukraine – claimed a mortar attack on the village of Zaitseve in the Donetsk region.
Dramatic drone footage captured the moment the depot transformed into a raging inferno as huge plumes of smoke rose into the sky.
The attack came in the wake of Russia launching three waves of strikes on Sunday morning against a Ukrainian air base believed to house long-range Storm Shadow missiles supplied by the British and French.
The Freedom Legion of Russia has announced the destruction of an ammunition depot in Zaitsevo, Donetsk region
A triple attack saw explosions near the Starokonstantinov air base in Ukraine’s Khmelnytskyi region, according to reports.
The extent of the damage was not clear, but Sergei Gamaly, the head of Ukraine’s regional military administration, said there had been a “series of explosions” in the area.
Russia had sent seven nuclear-capable Tu-95 strategic bombers to launch strikes with conventional Kh-101 missiles, reports said.
Russian sources said the Starokonstantinov base was used by Ukrainian Su-24 fighter jets to fire Storm Shadows and SCALP-EGs in the French version at occupied territories.
The devastating strike came as grain silos were targeted again overnight in Kharkiv, and during a national celebration of the Ukrainian Air Force, with Zelensky taking time to praise his “heroes of the air” on social media.