Russians plotted to oust me, says Ukraine president
Zelenskiy claims to have foiled coup planned for next week and funded by groups hostile to regime
UKRAINE’S president claimed to have uncovered a coup plot organised by Russians that was due to have been put into action as early as next week.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy made the claims during a press conference in which he insisted Kyiv was “entirely prepared for an escalation” as Russian troops mass near the border of his country.
Intelligence services, he said, had obtained a recording of unnamed Russians and Ukrainians discussing how to raise $1billion (£7,496,000) from Rinat Akhmetov, a Ukrainian oligarch, to fund a coup that would topple the president.
“This is a special operation … to lead a war against the state of Ukraine,” Mr Zelenskiy said, without pointing a finger directly at the Kremlin but adding that the coup was planned for Wednesday. He did not provide further details.
Mr Akhmetov – a billionaire tycoon who has had an outsized influence on Ukraine’s politics for more than two decades – said any suggestion he was involved was “an absolute lie”. A new bill pushed by Mr Zelenskiy seeks to reduce the influence of oligarchs such as Mr Akhmetov by, for example, barring them from funding political parties.
A spokesman for Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, denied he was involved in an attempt to overthrow the Ukrainian president. “Russia never had any plans to take part,” Dmitry Peskov said. “In general, Russia is never engaged in that kind of thing.”
Unusual movements by Russian troops over several weeks have put Ukraine and its European allies on alert for a possible invasion. A respected Russian open-sourced data group this week produced further evidence that Moscow has been moving tanks and ammunition close to its border with Ukraine.
“There is a threat today that there will be a war tomorrow. We are entirely prepared for an escalation,” Mr Zelenskiy said, adding that he had received assurances from Western nations that they would “support” Ukraine “if something happens”. But, he added: “What it’s going to look like in reality – I don’t know. I haven’t received exact details.”
Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, did little to clarify matters yesterday when he told the media that Moscow would face “consequences” if it attacked its neighbour. It is “clear that if Russia uses force against Ukraine, that will have costs”, he said. Mr Stoltenberg said a meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Latvia’s capital, Riga, next week would address the massing of Russian military units on the border, because it provided “very strong reasons to be deeply concerned”.
He said Russia was raising “tensions” and risking “miscalculations”, adding that the military build-up was “unprovoked and unexplained”. He said: “This is the second time this year that Russia has massed a large and unusual concentration of forces in the region.”