Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmigal directly accused Russia of "trying to organize the overthrow of the pro-Western government in Kiev."

President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Friday that an attempt to overthrow the Ukrainian government, which was to take place on December 1, had been detected and prevented. He added that Russian and Ukrainian nationals had been detained for carrying out the coup, but declined to comment directly on Moscow. Russia has categorically dismissed as "baseless" all allegations that it was "involved in a coup or any attempt to destabilize Ukraine."

But Prime Minister Shmigal claims that intelligence indicates that Russia was "absolutely" behind the planned coup in Ukraine.

"We have confidential data demonstrating the special intentions," Schmigal said in Brussels, where he met with senior European Union officials.

Asked if the Russian state was behind them, he replied: "Absolutely!"

The prime minister added that Ukrainian intelligence had intercepted the activities of "external forces" to influence the political opposition in Ukraine, in order to provoke a popular uprising and a coup d'etat.

- There is no revolutionary mood in Ukrainian society. We found that there were outside influences to encourage protests in Kiev, to intensify. "Our secret service is conducting a special investigation," said Prime Minister Schmigal.

The prime minister mentioned the concentration of Russian military forces near the common border, which he described as part of "Russia's wider efforts to stop Ukraine's rapprochement with the European Union."

"They are preparing something," Schmigal said, without explaining exactly what he meant.

Shmigal believes that all Russian aggressive activities are directed against Ukraine's membership in the EU, from the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014, through hybrid attacks to the concentration of troops along the border.

Ukrainians ousted pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014 in a popular uprising and violent clashes with police in Kiev's Maidan Square. The new pro-European leadership is pushing for the country to join the European Union and hopes to deepen relations with the EU at a special Eastern Partnership summit in December, along with Moldova and Georgia, which are also in Russia's sphere of interest. The EU has reached trade and defense agreements with Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, but Kiev is also seeking more military support from the United States.

- These are the main reasons for the hybrid attacks by the Russian side, because we are firmly determined to integrate in Europe, to have the standard of European, civilized countries. "That is why we are enduring all those hybrid attacks, cyber-attacks, military attacks, occupied territories, sowing misinformation, in order to stop Ukraine's European aspirations," Schmigal said in Brussels.

He clarified that the dismissal of Oleksandr Rusnak from the main post in the counter-intelligence department of the Ukrainian Security Service is not connected with the planned coup in Kiev.

Blinken: Any repeated aggression by Moscow against Ukraine will have serious consequences