Russia-backed coup planned next week: Ukraine prez

Kyiv: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has claimed that his country’s intelligence service has uncovered plans for a Russia-backed coup d’etat in the country set for next week that allegedly involves one of Ukraine’s richest oligarchs. Both the oligarch and the Russian government rejected the allegations. In Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he is spending a holiday weekend, US President Joe Biden expressed concern at the coup talk and renewed US support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and selfgover nment. At a news conference in the Ukrainian capital, Zelenskyy said he 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, Rinat Akhmetov.