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Why Zelenskyy dismissed his guard chief
Summary
A retrospective on the removal of the state guards head on 9 May 2024, two days after Ukraine's security service announced an alleged plot involving protection unit colonels.
What did the dismissal of Ukraine's state guards chief on 9 May 2024 signal about the security of the country's leadership? The day's events pointed to a serious breach inside the unit that protects the president.
On 9 May 2024, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired Serhiy Rud, head of the state guards. The decision followed allegations that two members of the guards had been involved in an assassination plot against Zelenskyy.
The detentions two days earlier
On 7 May 2024, the Security Service of Ukraine said it had detained two colonels from the government protection unit. According to the service, both had been recruited by Russia's Federal Security Service. It said they were planning to assassinate Zelenskyy and other top Ukrainian officials.
The sequence is plain. The security service announced the arrests on 7 May. Within two days, the president removed the head of the body to which the accused officers belonged.
Wider context
The case was not the first of its kind. Ukrainian government officials and news sources have said that Zelenskyy has survived dozens of assassination and kidnapping attempts by Russian or pro-Russian agents during the war, including at least three foiled by Ukrainian security services.
What the 9 May dismissal shows is that the allegations reached the president's own protective structure. Recruitment of serving colonels from that structure was the core of the security service's account. The removal of the unit's head was the visible political consequence of that account.
