Why Zelenskyy dismissed his guard chief after a plot arrest
The dismissal of the state guards head on 9 May 2024 followed the arrest of two colonels accused of plotting to kill the president.
What does it mean when the unit that protects a president is itself accused of being penetrated? On 9 May 2024, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired Serhiy Rud, the head of the state guards, after allegations that two members of the guards had been involved in an assassination plot against him.
The sequence
The dismissal came two days after the Security Service of Ukraine said on 7 May 2024 that it had detained two colonels from a government protection unit. According to the service, both had been recruited by Russia's Federal Security Service and were planning to assassinate Zelenskyy and other top Ukrainian officials.
The order of events matters. The arrests were announced first; the leadership change followed within days. The president acted against the head of the body whose personnel were named in the case.
Why it matters for governance
A protection service depends on trust and on tight vetting. An accusation that serving colonels were working for a hostile intelligence agency goes to the heart of that arrangement. Removing the commander was a visible step that placed responsibility at the top of the organisation, whatever the eventual findings about the individuals detained.
The case also showed the security service at work against an internal threat. Its announcement named the Russian agency it said was behind the recruitment, framing the matter as an operation by a foreign state rather than an isolated breach.
Later reporting, written well after these events, describes Zelenskyy as having survived dozens of assassination and kidnapping attempts by Russian or pro-Russian agents during the war, according to Ukrainian officials and news sources, including at least three foiled by Ukrainian security services. That tally was not part of the public picture on 9 May 2024, but it places the episode within a longer pattern of alleged plots.
The wider backdrop
The dismissal fell amid continued fighting. On 8 May 2024, Russia launched missile and drone strikes across Ukraine, injuring three people and damaging critical infrastructure. Ukraine said it had shot down 39 of 55 missiles and 20 of 21 drones. On 7 May 2024, Ukrainian forces struck an oil terminal in Luhansk, causing a large fire and injuring at least five workers.
For Kyiv, the week combined pressure on the front and in the energy system with a challenge inside the machinery of state protection. The firing of the guards chief was the clearest institutional response to the second of these.
