Ukraine’s security service said Monday it had foiled yet another Russian plot to sow civil unrest and use the resulting unrest to overthrow the government, outlining a familiar tactic that Kiev says has been used in a series of coup attempts in recent years.
Ukraine’s domestic intelligence service, the SBU, said it had discovered a “group” of conspirators it accused of planning to spark a riot, seize the parliament building and replace the country’s military and civilian leadership. Four people have been arrested and charged, authorities said.
While offering few details on how such an ambitious plan could have succeeded, officials said it was a reminder that more than two years after launching a full-scale invasion of the country, the Kremlin remained determined to destroy President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government in any way. therefore to overthrow. .
On the battlefield, Russia continues to send tens of thousands of new soldiers to replace the fallen, hoping to wear down the Ukrainian army and Kiev’s Western backers. At the same time, Russia’s relentless bombardment of Ukraine’s critical infrastructure is partly intended to strangle the economy and undermine the state’s ability to function.
According to Ukrainian and Western officials, the Kremlin has long been conducting covert campaigns aimed at destabilizing the government in Kiev, in some cases trying to sow discontent through disinformation.
The plot outlined by Ukraine’s domestic intelligence service and prosecutors on Monday fits exactly that pattern.
According to Ukrainian officials, it was intended to start with a riot.
The organizers – described as agents working on behalf of Russia – planned to hold “a supposedly peaceful rally in the center of the capital,” said SBU spokesman Artem Dekhtyarenko.
Most attendees would be “in the dark” about the plot, he said. When there were several thousand people, Mr. Dekhtyarenko said, organizers “planned to spread information about the unrest in Kiev through domestic and foreign information sources.”
“In this way they hoped to undermine the socio-political situation in our country, which would benefit Russia,” he said in a statement.
The defendants also planned to use the moment “to announce the removal from power of the current military and political leadership of Ukraine,” he added, saying they hoped to “seize” the parliament building and block its work.
Storming and then securing heavily guarded government buildings would likely have proven challenging, raising questions about the feasibility of the plot and how far it had progressed. But officials said that aside from the details, the plot was intended to create an atmosphere of chaos that could undermine confidence in the government.
Ukraine’s chief prosecutor said four men had been charged and given notices of suspicion of treason, while two of them had been remanded in custody pending trial as a “precautionary measure”.
In accordance with state policy, the names of the suspects were not made public. The prosecutor’s office said the organizer was “the head of a public trade union who already had experience of participating in unsuccessful provocative events.”
“He rented a hall in Kiev that could accommodate 2,000 people, and also sought military and armed guards from private structures to carry out the takeover of parliament,” the prosecutor’s office said.
Without knowing the identities of the suspects, it was not possible to reach attorneys or other representatives for comment.
However, the plot bore similarities to a series of other attempts reported by Ukrainian security services even before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
For example, Mr. Zelensky told a press conference in November 2021 that his security services a plot foiled to overthrow his government.
Just a month before the Kremlin ordered the full-scale invasion, the British government announced that Moscow was developing plans to stage a coup in Ukraine and install a pro-Russian leader in power.
Intelligence services said at the time that they wanted to make public their concerns about Russian interference in Ukraine’s internal affairs to prevent further escalation.
That didn’t work.
When Russian troops poured into Ukraine in February 2022, one of their first missions, according to Ukrainian and Western officials, was to kill mister Zelensky.
Those attempts to decapitate his government failed. But Mr. Zelensky said earlier this year that his security services had told him about more than a dozen attempts on his life From that moment on.
In May, Ukrainian security services arrested two Ukrainian colonels and accused them of taking part in an elaborate plan to assassinate the president and other top leaders.
The plan outlined on Monday was part of a broader operation by Mr Zelensky which was warned about in Novemberwhen he said that Moscow was stepping up its clandestine campaign to sow discord through disinformation and covert actions.
The campaign was codenamed “Maidan 3,” Mr. Zelensky said, a reference to the central square in Kiev that was the scene of protests in 2004 and an uprising in 2014 that led to the ouster of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.
