Sniper assassination attempt on Zelensky foiled at Polish airport

An assassination attempt on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was thwarted at Rzeszów airport in Poland, according to Vasyl Malyuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

The alleged mastermind behind the plot is said to be a Polish citizen and former military man who was reportedly recruited decades ago.

Malyuk stated that the suspect remained a follower of Soviet ideology and had been plotting an attack for many years. The potential methods of assassination included using an FPV drone or sniper weapons. It comes as new dementia fears were raised about Donald Trump after viewers spotted a mysterious clue in his suit.

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Thanks to the combined efforts of the SBU and the Polish Internal Security Agency, the suspect was successfully apprehended. Several assassination attempts were planned against President Zelenskyy, one of which was set to occur in the Polish city of Rzeszów.

"As part of their criminal plan, they were recruiting individuals and were supposed to carry out the assassination during the president’s movement on the premises of the Office of the President of Ukraine," the SBU chief clarified.

SBU head Vasyl Malyuk reported that these attempts were successfully foiled due to the diligent work of the Security Service of Ukraine and the Polish Internal Security Agency.

"Last year, a colonel of the State Guard Department, the head of the Department of State Protection Management, was detained. These are the people who are supposed to protect the top officials in this country, and that is their function. At the same time, they were preparing an assassination attempt on President Zelenskyy," said Vasyl Malyuk.

"Another colonel was detained along with him. They were working for the Russian FSB, specifically for the 5th Service. At that time, it was headed by Lieutenant General Beseda. After this failure, Putin removed him; he remained an advisor within the FSB system. On our side, this was very complex work. We worked on it for almost two years, essentially from the beginning of the war. We carried out a powerful agent-technical infiltration into this group," Malyuk said.

Meanwhile, Russian drones and missiles killed at least 14 civilians and injured several dozen others in Ukraine in overnight attacks, local officials said Monday, with nine deaths reported in the capital, Kyiv, where an apartment building partially collapsed.

The attacks came as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy began a visit to the United Kingdom, where he met privately with King Charles III.

Russia fired 352 drones and decoys overnight, as well as 11 ballistic missiles and five cruise missiles, Ukraine’s air force said. Air defenses intercepted or jammed 339 drones and 15 missiles before they could reach their targets, a statement said.

A Russian ballistic missile strike destroyed a high school later in the day in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, killing two staff, authorities said. No children were on the premises due to the summer vacation, said Zelenskyy, who described the strike as “absolutely insane.”