Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday said that his country’s intelligence service had uncovered plans for a Russia-backed coup d’etat in the country set for next week that allegedly involves one of Ukraine’s richest oligarchs.
The oligarch and the Russian government rejected the allegations.
In Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he is spending a holiday weekend, US President Joe Biden expressed concern at the coup allegations and renewed US support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and self-government.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Zelenskiy told a news conference in Kyiv that he had received information that a coup was being planned for next Wednesday or Thursday.
He did not give many details to back up his allegation, but pointed to a suspected role of Ukraine’s richest oligarch, Rinat Akhmetov.
The president said that Ukrainian intelligence has audio recordings of an alleged meeting between Russian and Ukrainian officials discussing a plan for a coup allegedly funded by Akhmetov, whose fortune is estimated at US$7.5 billion.
Zelenskiy refused to disclose further details about the alleged coup, saying only that he does not plan to flee the country.
Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the allegations in comments to journalists in Moscow.
“Russia had no plans to get involved. Russia never does such things at all,” Peskov said.
Akhmetov called Zelenskiy’s allegations “an absolute lie.”
“I am outraged by the spread of this lie, no matter what the President’s motives are,” Akhmetov said in a statement, relayed to The Associated Press by his spokeswoman, Anna Terekhova.
Asked about the alleged coup plans, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried said: “We are in touch with the Ukrainian government to discuss this further, and we’re working to obtain additional information.”
Biden told US reporters that he expected to talk to Russian president Vladimir Putin and Zelenskiy, “in all probability.”
Volodymyr Fesenko, a Kiev-based political analyst and head of the Penta Center think tank, told reporters that Zelenskiy targeted Akhmetov after a “proper information war” was waged against the president over the past two months on TV channels the oligarch owns.
A mass protest in front of the president’s office is also being planned for Wednesday.
The analyst pointed to great discontent among Ukrainian oligarchs, including Akhmetov, over a law pushed by Zelenskiy that limits their influence on politics.
Fesenko called Zelenskiy’s reference to Akhmetov in connection with the alleged coup “a pre-emptive signal” for the oligarch not to get in involved in “risky political ventures, cross the ‘red lines’ and negotiate with Moscow.”
In the past few weeks, Ukrainian and Western officials have expressed concern that a Russian military buildup near Ukraine could signal plans by Moscow to invade its ex-Soviet neighbor.
The Kremlin says it has no such intention, and has accused Ukraine and its Western backers of making the claims to cover up their own allegedly aggressive designs.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine has full control of its borders and is ready for any escalation of the conflict with Russia.
However, he noted that the media are engaged in fearmongering over the possibility of such a conflict.
He also said that the head of his office, Andriy Yermak, would soon contact Russian authorities at the request of European Council President Charles Michel and German Acting Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“They want contacts between our administration and the Russian administration. I think that in the near future, Yermak will contact them. We are absolutely not against” this, Zelenskiy said.
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
The Russian minister of foreign affairs warned the US, South Korea and Japan against forming a security partnership targeting North Korea as he visited the ally country for talks on further solidifying their booming military and other cooperation. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov spoke on Saturday in Wonsan City, North Korea, where he met North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un and conveyed greetings from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kim during the meeting reaffirmed his government’s commitment to “unconditionally support and encourage all measures” taken by Russia in its conflict with Ukraine. Pyongyang and Moscow share identical views on “all strategic issues in
‘FALSE NARRATIVE’: China and the Solomon Islands inked a secretive security pact in 2022, which is believed to be a prelude to building a Chinese base, which Beijing denied The Australian government yesterday said it expects China to spy on major military drills it is conducting with the US and other allies. It also renewed a charge — denounced by Beijing as a “false narrative” — that China wants to establish a military base in the South Pacific. The comments by a government minister came as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made a six-day visit to China to bolster recently repaired trade ties. More than 30,000 military personnel from 19 nations are set to join in the annual Talisman Sabre exercises from yesterday across Australia and Papua New Guinea. “The Chinese military have
The US Department of Education on Tuesday said it opened a foreign funding investigation into the University of Michigan (UM) while alleging it found “inaccurate and incomplete disclosures” in a review of the university’s foreign reports, after two Chinese scientists linked to the school were separately charged with smuggling biological materials into the US. As part of the investigation, the department asked the university to share, within 30 days, tax records related to foreign funding, a list of foreign gifts, grants and contracts with any foreign source, and other documents, the department said in a statement and in a letter to
RSS