As the war situation gets more difficult by the day, and against the background of his expired Presidential mandate in May, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has his reasons to be worried about being driven out of power the hard way.
To prevent this outcome, the embattled leader is ordering a complete purge of the Department of State Protection, after members were arrested on suspicion of plotting assassinations.
Reuters reported:
“President Volodymyr Zelensky told the new chief of Ukraine’s state guard service to clear its ranks of people discrediting it after two of its officers were accused of plotting to assassinate senior officials.
The state security service (SBU) said last month that it had caught two guard service colonels accused of cooperating with Russia to plot the assassination of Zelensky and other officials, including military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov.
The guard service provides security for various government officials.”
Read: Polish Citizen Arrested For Alleged Plot to Assassinate Ukraine’s Zelensky
When introducing the new head of the Department Colonel Oleksiy Morozov, Zelensky said his main task was ‘to ensure that only those who see their future tied with Ukraine join the agency’.
These were his first comments since the agents were arrested.
“‘And, of course, the agency must be cleared of anyone who chooses not Ukraine for themselves or discredits the state guard service’, he said on Telegram.”
Read: Attempted Assassination Plot Against Ukrainian President Zelensky – Woman Arrested
Zelensky lost a good deal of popularity since the start of the war, and increasingly more so after dismissing his main political rival, General Valery Zaluzhny, from the position of Commander in Chief.
Add to that the fact that his mandate has expired and he is ruling out of Martial law powers, and you have an explosive situation.
Back in May, Ukrainian SBU arrested two colonels in the state guard service, accused of plotting the assassination of Zelensky and other top officials – and after that, the head of the State Guards was also dismissed.
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