Ukraine leader alleges Russia-backed coup planned next week

By YURAS KARMANAU
The Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is alleging that his country’s intelligence service has uncovered plans for a Russia-backed coup d’etat in Ukraine next week that involves one of the country’s richest oligarchs. Both the oligarch and the Russian government have rejected the allegations. At a news conference in the Ukrainian capital on Friday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 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. The Kremlin spokesman rejected the allegations, telling reporters in Moscow that: “Russia had no plans to get involved. … Russia never does such things at all.”