Ukraine foils Russian-backed coup, SBU claims

Ukraine’s SBU security forces claimed to have foiled a Russia-backed coup on Monday which had planned to overthrow Volodymyr Zelensky and install a pro-Kremlin government.

They said that the plotters planned to use the cover of a rally in central Kyiv to incite riots and then capture the Ukrainian parliament, known as the Verkhovna Rada.

“The perpetrators planned to announce the ‘removal from power’ of the current military-political leadership of Ukraine. They then hoped to seize the building of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada and block its work,” said the SBU, adding that the coup was planned for Ukraine’s Constitution Day on June 30.