Ukrainian authorities say they have thwarted a coup attempt aimed at overthrowing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his government in Kyiv.
“Law enforcement personnel uncovered a group of pseudo-activists who were planning to stage provocations in Kyiv on June 30,” the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said in a July 1 social media post.
The alleged plotters, according to the post, used multiple social media accounts in a bid to “discredit the country’s current leadership, challenge the constitutional order, and seize power in Ukraine.”
According to the prosecutor general’s office, the group had planned to storm the parliament building in Kyiv and announce the formation of a “provisional government.”
The plotters, it said, had sought to “implement the seizure of power” with the help of renegade military personnel and private security contractors.
Four people have since been detained in connection with the alleged plot, and two of them have already been charged, the prosecutor general’s office said.
Election Issues
In recent months, rumors of impending coups against the Ukrainian government have surfaced intermittently.In February, Ukraine’s intelligence directorate claimed that Russia was plotting a coup attempt against Mr. Zelenskyy to be carried out in the spring.
It warned against Russian attempts to “sow panic and discord” in Kyiv with the aim of casting doubt on the Ukrainian leader’s legitimacy once his presidential term expired.
Mr. Zelenskyy’s five-year presidential term officially ended on May 20.
Ukraine had been slated to hold a presidential election on March 31. However, in late 2023, Mr. Zelenskyy announced that scheduled elections—for both parliament and the presidency—would be indefinitely postponed as long as martial law remained in effect.
Kyiv first imposed martial law in early 2022 after Russia launched its invasion of eastern Ukraine, which remains ongoing.
Since then, the state of martial law has been repeatedly extended by Ukraine’s parliament, where Mr. Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party enjoys a majority.
To accusations from Moscow questioning Mr. Zelenskyy’s legitimacy, Ukrainian Parliament Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk, an ally of Mr. Zelenskyy, recently asserted that anyone questioning the latter’s legitimacy was an “enemy of Ukraine” and guilty of spreading false information.
Kyiv’s chief Western backers, meanwhile, have voiced understanding for the Ukrainian leader’s predicament.
“We want to see presidential elections—and all elections—in Ukraine,” a U.S. State Department spokesman told reporters in March.
“But we recognize that it’s a difficult thing to conduct in the middle of the war.
“Ultimately, it’s a decision for the Ukrainian people to make.”
Heavy Fighting
Meanwhile, Mr. Zelenskyy faces a grim battlefield situation that appears to have deteriorated in recent weeks.On June 30, Russia’s defense ministry claimed that its forces had captured two additional villages in the eastern Donetsk region.
Two days earlier, the ministry claimed that Russian forces had also managed to capture the Donetsk settlement of Rozdolivka.
Rozdolivka lies to the north of Bakhmut and Soledar, both of which fell to Russian forces last year after months of fierce fighting.
Kyiv has yet to confirm Russia’s latest battlefield gains, with the general staff of Ukraine’s military merely stating that “heavy fighting” is ongoing in the area.
Since capturing the strategic town of Avdiivka in February, Russian forces have continued to register incremental gains in Donetsk and the northeastern Kharkiv region.
Russia invaded eastern Ukraine in February 2022 with the stated aim of protecting Russian speakers in Donbas (made up of Donetsk and Luhansk) and preempting NATO’s further eastward expansion.
Seven months later, Russia effectively annexed the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions and now regards them as Russian Federation territory.
Backed by its powerful Western allies, Kyiv rejects the annexations and has vowed to continue battling Russian forces until all four regions are recovered.
