Ukraine’s SBU security forces claimed they had 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.

It published photos on Monday of officers wearing balaclavas as they arrested several alleged plotters on Sunday. It also said that the focus of its operations had been in the Ivano-Frankivsk region of west Ukraine.

The coup plotters were known pro-Russia agitators and had stashed caches of weapons, which included assault rifles, a sniper rifle and handguns. Cartons of ammunition, laptops, mobile phones and hand-drawn coup instructions were also found in the raids.

“The perpetrators planned to disseminate information about the ‘unrest’ in Kyiv through domestic and foreign information resources,” said the SBU. “They hoped to destabilise the socio-political situation within our country, which would play out in favour of the Russian Federation.”

The SBU said that the coup plot had been organised by a “co-founder of a public organisation that has been known for its anti-Ukrainian actions since 2015” but it declined to name him directly.

The Kremlin has not commented but Western intelligence services have previously said that dozens of assassination attempts against Mr Zelensky have been foiled. In May, the SBU arrested two Ukrainian colonels working in the military unit tasked with protecting top officials for plotting to kill Mr Zelensky. They had planned to kidnap the Ukrainian president and then execute him.

Sunday’s alleged coup plot appears to have been bigger in scope than the May assassination plan. The SBU said that as well as mobilising in Kyiv, the coup plotters had grassroots organisations in Dnipro and other Ukrainian cities.

“They communicated with each other in various instant messengers and, if they met, they did so in small groups of three,” said the SBU.

It also released, as evidence of the plot, an alleged voice recording of a conversation between two coup leaders. In the recording, one of the coup leaders claims to have the support of “not hundreds, but thousands” of people.

“We are officially going to organise ourselves as a Veche,” the leader said, using the word for a council or assembly in medieval Slavic city states. “We need to gather as many people as possible.”

The SBU said that if the alleged plotters are convicted, they could be sentenced to prison for up to 10 years.

Ukrainian intelligence services have warned this year that the Kremlin has stepped up its plots against the Ukrainian government as well as schemes to destabilise Ukraine.

Western governments have also warned that Kremlin agents have become more active in Europe.

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Zelensky appeals for air defence aid amid continued Russian strikes

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has complained about ongoing Russian bombing and once again appealed to the West for more help with air defence.

In the past week alone, Russia has dropped 800 glide bombs over Ukraine, Zelensky announced in Kiev on Sunday. He also published a video of the heavy destruction and fires in the Kherson, Dnipro, Odessa and Zaporizhzhya regions, among others.

"Ukraine needs more air defence systems. We need strong help from our partners," said Zelensky.

Ukraine also needs the means to shoot down the Russian fighter bombers, he said.

On Saturday, seven people were killed in an attack on the city of Vilniansk in the Zaporizhzhya region. According to official figures from Sunday, more than 40 people were injured. Lower figures had initially been reported the previous day.

On Sunday, at least one person was killed in a Russian airstrike on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Sunday and a further eight people, including an eight-month-old baby, were seriously injured in the attack, according to Mayor Oleh Terekhov.

The glide bomb exploded in the middle of the city centre. The military administrator of Kharkiv, Oleh Synjehubov, specified that a post office had been hit in the attack.

The West is supporting Ukraine in its defence campaign against the Russian invasion, which has been going on for more than two years. The country has repeatedly requested more US Patriot air-defence systems to better protect its cities from Russian airstrikes.

Incident on Ukraine's border with Hungary

On Ukraine's western border with Hungary, a border guard fatally shot one man and injured another after they tried to attack with a machete on Saturday evening, according to a report from the news website Ukrainska Pravda, citing border guards and authorities.

The incident took place in the western Ukrainian region of Chernivtsi. Authorities did not immediately disclose details about the suspected attackers or any information around what may have led to the attack.

There have been clashes along the border due to efforts by guards to enforce rules forbidding men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving the country outside of exceptional circumstances.

In a separate incident, 17 men travelling in a minibus were apprehended along the border with Hungary while allegedly trying to leave Ukraine illegally, the border guards announced

The men came from different regions of Ukraine and were trying to flee to Hungary. Authorities said an initial investigation revealed that the men were supposed to pay between $3,000 and $12,000 to leave the country.

Russian occupiers seize Ukrainian property

The occupying forces in the Russian-annexed Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine are preparing to transfer residential property to military personnel, the Centre of National Resistance in Kiev said on Sunday.

Flats would not only be handed over to Moscow's occupying forces but also to migrants from Central Asia, the centre said.

The internationally unrecognized leadership in Luhansk is preparing corresponding laws. Many Ukrainians have fled the occupied territories and left their property behind.

Immigrants from Central Asia are mainly used as cheap labour by Russia - not least for the reconstruction of towns and villages destroyed by the war.

According to a statement from the centre, the occupying forces are confiscating homes abandoned during the war and transferring them to homeless people.

Civilians are also being forcibly relocated from areas close to the front. Russian soldiers would then be housed in the civilian buildings, it said.

Russian state employees in Luhansk are being given flats abandoned by Ukrainians in order to carry out administrative tasks in the occupied territory, the centre said. Such flats and houses are offered for sale at low prices.

"The Kremlin is promoting such resettlements because it wants to completely Russify the occupied territories," the statement said.

The occupiers rejected recognizing the documents on residential property issued in accordance with Ukrainian law. Instead, they demanded that ownership be formalized in accordance with Russian laws. Homeowners would thus be forced to first apply for a Russian passport and then go through Russian legal procedures.

The centre emphasized that the Russian approach was illegal and recommended that Ukrainian citizens keep original documents or certified copies of certificates of ownership. The Ukrainian leadership has repeatedly announced its intention to recapture the annexed territories.

Ukrainian citizens have also been expropriated on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. Many homes, including one belonging to the family of President Volodymyr Zelensky, were seized by the Russian state.

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