Ukraine says it foiled attempt to assassinate Zelensky • FRANCE 24 English

the uh situation in Ukraine where the big story is that a plot has been unraveled to assassinate senior Ukrainian political and Military figures including the President Vladimir zalinsky we understand this is a Russian plot two Ukrainian security officials have been arrested for their links uh with the group behind it which had aimed to carry out high-profile killings ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin's inauguration which took place earlier this Tuesday ke says sansky has been targeted by Russia on multiple earlier occasions including at the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022 Tom ketti here at France 24 with this Russian insiders Ukraine's Secret Service claims were plotting to kill Vladimir zilinski among those detained were two Colonels from the Department of the state protection of Ukraine accused of divulging classified information to Russia the network whose activities were overseen by the FSB from abroad included two Udo Colonels who leaked secret information to the Russian Federation thus the enemy was actively developing plans to eliminate President Vladimir zalinski one of the most important tasks of the FSB agent network was to find officials among the military close to the president who could take the head of state hostage and later kill him targets they plan to assassinate also include the head of the sbu and the head of the GU Ukraine's Military Intelligence according to the sbu the operatives intended to Monitor and relay the movements of their targets to enable Precision rocket attacks on their locations followed by drone strikes to eliminate survivors and Aras any evidence of the operation Tom ketti there let's get more analysis Julia mendle joins us Julia was press secretary to Vladimir zalinski from 2019 to 2021 where she witnessed firsthand the early years of the zalinski administration indeed her book uh the fight of Our Lives is being updated by ulia right now and of course it's a great uh charting of that very interesting indeed vital period of time yudia thanks for being with us this plot uh to assassinate the president and other uh leading members of his team what's your reaction to this oh well Mark uh first of all thank you for having me here uh second really Russia tries every possible means to undermine Ukraine and definitely president zalinski has been um elected with a record 73% so the first thing that Russia decided to do when it brutally and unprovokedly invaded Ukraine in 2022 they tried to assassinate president zalinsky and I was talking actually to his close friend uh who had been the first uh uh Security Service head of Ukraine it's actually like CIA he told me some details saying that in the first uh three days there were around 3,000 of counterintelligence operations that Ukrainian military together with security service did actually to stand against Russians who were trying to get to K and also who were trying to assassinate zalinski and multiple Ukrainian top officials including uh even act top officials like the head of uh Ukrainian Parliament ex head of Ukrainian parliament of course the head of security service etc etc etc so he told me that uh Russia sent around 2,000 of uh Chans andu uh offic like offic soldiers uh main uh in uh directorate of uh Russian general staff to ke and they actually tried to get to ke and to the Office of the President by several means by the air on the helicopters by the river where they actually were killed and they even had this absolutely science fiction plan to get to the presidential office bomb shelter under uh under Earth which me meant they wanted to use their underground tunnels uh which was absolutely crazy idea and nobody understand how it would work uh they never managed to do that so um I know that there was an attempt to get into president zin's house uh in K region and there were uh some damages uh that have been repaired since then um so the thing is that Russia tried to use first its military second sabotage groups but also third there were a lot of Agents inside Ukraine that Russia was very generously paying to get different secret information and when we see uh State guard uh who were selling secret information to Russia this is really unbelievably crazy because you know these are very close people to the president and to every top official they literally know what president eats what president drinks you know uh when he goes to bed like everything every his step as well as every step of every other top official so it shows that Russia tries to penetrate very very deep into Ukrainian politics Ukrainian Society trying to undermine us from inside and you know this makes us very very cautious this is going to really play into a feeling of paranoia surely uh for the president and for those around him I'm sorry could you pleas this is going to lead to an element of paranoia for the president for those around him that this plot so close to uh the president has been has been foiled has been stopped but the very fact that it has happened surely it's going to make a great deal of Suspicion raise a lot of Suspicion for the president and those around him well I'm sure that obviously there is a lot of caution a lot of warning and um you know I I guess some fear because this is the deaths that going after these people president zinsky and other officials like for you know the third year like step by step I'm not sure how many assassination attempts Russia actually uh uh try to make but definitely we learn a lot of information that shows that they are very very uh goal oriented here and um definitely you know uh they understand that by undermining Ukrainian Authority they will undermine the independence Ukraine because Ukraine preserved its independence even we uh lost a lot of territories and a lot of people Julia the plot comes at a time when uh finally that 61 billion dollar of USA has been unblocked via Congress it's been held up for such a long time but obviously its effects are still not being felt its benefits still not being felt on the front lines for Ukrainian troops I'm wondering whether that uh what's happened with the plot other issues the the kind of War of Attrition that's taking place this must be affecting people's morale across Ukraine well actually you know the last months uh there was a lot of desperacy it felt everywhere uh in the air um for the reason that you know many people F felt betrayed um and and and you feel that there is no way out you know people just keep dying civilians military territories are being grabbed and just there is nothing you can change no one can change um so uh this kind of help this kind of Aid at least gave us some hope because Russians are very persistent to in circling har this is the second largest Ukrainian city of over 1 million people and that would be really you know very sorrowful if we'll lose this city or if it turns into you know any kind of uh other ruin that Russia has been turning Ukrainian cities in but if we understand that this Aid is coming and some of ammunition is coming then we feel like we can defend more civilians let me be frank here I don't think that anyone from Ukrainian military or Ukrainian authorities today believe that we can return the territories thanks to this agid but in perspective you know first of all we can defend more people we can defend our cities our towns and this is the most important thing that we can do so I'm really very very thankful for actually preserving the lives of my people indeed I know from having read your book uh that you are from hon uh in in the South going down towards Crimea and clearly hon is one of these places that is forever being hit uh so clearly I I know from your own perspective from your family perspective great worries and concerns when you hear the likes of Emanuel macron talking about the possibility of troops on the ground not being ruled out when you hear Lord Cameron of the UK talking about um long range missiles for Ukraine to strike a Russian territory when you hear cin ping telling macron just 24 hours ago that he's committed to not selling arms to Russia for use in Ukraine does that give you any hope of optimism well when we talk about um you know Chinese government and Chinese promises it's always very ambiguous and I'm afraid that China understands how valuable they are as a partner now because they can influence Russia so um I have this feeling that they play uh you know the game uh in both uh on both sides let me just uh tell you that since February 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine uh China increased uh its exports to Russia 60% and it's not only about just commercial Goods it's also about uh socalled uh uh dual uh purpose uh materials which are used in Russian Weaponry production last month uh uh Russia imported uh 300 million value of such dual gold uh um materials which will be beneficial for its Weaponry production it's actually the reduction in the last half of a year from 600 million but it's still China is still the biggest uh um supplier of these kind of materials to Russia and uh us the EU United Kingdom and Japan recognize these type of materials as a top priority high priority for production of uh uh Russian defense sector so what I mean you know there are just numbers and uh some of this data is publicly available and um this data is confirmed by intelligence services in the west that Russia R is providing the the the materials that are helpful for Russia to produce weaponry and in this case you know uh China needs to think that in fact if they want actually to contribute to some kind of a future peace deal they cannot Supply the aggressor with the Weaponry or with something that would be useful they cannot just play in you know both games pretending to be a peacemaker but at the same time contributing to aggression so um I understand that Ukrainian authorities really are looking for uh uh uh Cen pin to join uh uh the peace Summit in Switzerland this year and they want to send the message and to convince Cen pin that he can actually contribute to influence in Russia and to stopping this war you know and to achieving what is called fair just peace not just peace um let's see how it will go we we have all hope that European union leaders and president macron could have some influence uh uh on Chinese leader but you know um we will see I hope I hope we will see in the nearest Future that uh Cen pin will make some uh concrete steps uh to establishing peace in the region Julia diaku thank you very much indeed for joining us it's always a pleasure talking to Julia mle former press secretary to Vladimir zalinski do stay safe and we can just show you the cover of Julia's book B the fight of Our Lives which is currently being updated by Julia uh she does have a story uh to tell uh that I can tell you for sure thank you once again Yul for joining us here on France 24 we appreciate your time next

Channel: FRANCE 24 English

Views: 28,175

Keywords: NATO, Russia, Ukraine, war

Id: tuNEdSjp5CM

Length: 12min 12sec (732 seconds)

Published: Tue May 07 2024