The Ukrainian Security Service (SSU) announced that a female Russian agent was detained as part of an assassination plot targeting President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“The SSU has detained an informant of russian intelligence services who on the eve of the visit of the President of Ukraine to Mykolaiv oblast was collecting information on the planned events,” the agency noted in an official statement on Monday morning local time.
“Primarily, the woman tried to establish time and list of locations of the Head of State’s tentative itinerary in the region.”
The SSU labeled the woman a “traitor” and confirmed that she was a resident of Ochakiv, in southern Ukraine, where she worked as a “saleswoman in a military shop at one of the local military units.” The unnamed woman was reportedly caught “red-handed” as “she was trying to pass intelligence to the invaders.”
The incident prompted Zelensky to make a statement lamenting the “struggle against traitors in Ukraine.”
“The Main Intelligence Directorate and the Foreign Intelligence Service provided the data received from Russia. We understand the enemy’s immediate plans. Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Malyuk reported on the struggle against traitors in Ukraine,” the president’s official account tweeted on Monday.
The daily conference call.
We heard a report from Commander-in-Chief Zaluzhny on the situation at the front. Intense defensive and offensive operations are underway.
The Ministry of Defense reported on the supply of equipment and ammunition, as well as the supply calendar for… pic.twitter.com/7SlGd4lR1w
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 7, 2023
In early May, Russia claimed that Ukrainian drones were dispatched to Moscow, the nation’s capital, to kill President Vladimir Putin in what it described as a “terrorist” act. However, Zelensky, then visiting Helsinki, Finland, dismissed any involvement in the matter.
“We don’t attack Putin or Moscow. We fight on our territory. We’re defending our villages and cities,” the Ukrainian president said during a news conference.
The United States issued a tepid response at the time. “I can’t in any way validate them. We simply don’t know,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a crowd during a World Press Freedom Day event in Washington, D.C.
“I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt. So let’s see. We’ll see what the facts are and it’s really hard to comment or speculate on this without really knowing what the facts are.”
In July, Zelensky appeared on ABC to argue that ongoing foot-dragging from Ukrainian allies hesitant to provide arms and equipment “will lead to more lives lost.” His comments came on the heels of the Biden administration sending the embattled nation cluster munitions. However, the White House has refrained from sending F-16 fighter jets and other advanced equipment.
“I would like to say thank you to all Americans for what you have done and I appreciate those who say you have done enough. Trust me, no matter what, I appreciate help whenever it comes,” Zelensky said. “When it comes to the word ‘enough,’ well we Ukrainians are not people known for excessive appetite. Our victory is enough for us. Honestly, when we have enough for our victory, then it will be enough.”
Responding to former President Donald Trump’s recent comments that he could resolve the war in 24 hours, Zelensky expressed skepticism. “It seems to me that the sole desire to bring the war to an end is beautiful, but this desire has to be based on real-life experiences.”
“It looks as if Donald Trump had already these 24 hours once . . . We were at war. Not a full-scale war, but we were at war. If we are talking about ending the war at the cost of Ukraine, in other words to make us give up our territories, well I think in this way Biden could have brought it to an end even in 5 minutes, but we would not agree.”