Law Enforcement Officers Report Involvement of Russian Special Services in Explosions at Military Depots in Ukraine, Czech Republic (video)

The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) of Ukraine collected evidence of the involvement of Russian special services in the 2015 explosions at an ammunition depot in Svatove, Luhansk region, and the 2014 explosions at ammunition depots in the Czech Republic where weapons for Ukraine were stored.

This was discussed at a press conference with the participation of representatives of the SBI, the Security Service of Ukraine, and the Prosecutor General’s Office.

According to the case files, the Ukrainian law enforcement officers brought sabotage charges against:

• Former chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Igor Sergun (headed the department until 2016)
• Former bodyguard of Vladimir Putin, Aleksey Dyumin, who held the position of head of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation from 2013 to 2015
• Commander of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Major General Valeryi Fliustikov
• Commander of the 161th Center for the Training of Special Purpose Specialists of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Major General Andrey Averyanov, who, according to the SBI, is a member of Putin’s close circle

More than 25 direct organisers and executors of sabotage from among the Russian special services were also suspected.

In particular, Anatoliy Chepiga and Aleksandr Mishkin, who tried to poison former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the British city of Salisbury 2018, are among them.

Charges were also brought against accomplices to Russian saboteurs – traitors from Ukraine.

The SBI proved that one of them directly operated a UAV that dropped explosives on Svatove.

According to law enforcement officers, this is a citizen of Ukraine with the call sign “Start,” who joined the “LPR” terrorist organisation in 2014 and later began to work for the Russian special services.

“In the course of a joint investigation with representatives of the Czech law enforcement officers, the SBI officers established that it was Russian saboteurs who blew up military depots in the Czech Republic in 2014. An important role in this sabotage operation was played by Mishkin and Chepiga, who are already known for the attempt to poison the Skripals in Salisbury,” the SBI report reads.

According to the same scenario, they committed sabotage at the military warehouse in Svatove on 29 October 2015, the Bureau adds.

According to the Security Service of Ukraine, explosions at the depot in Svatove in the Luhansk region were one of the first cases when combat drones were used in the territory of Ukraine.

The Security Service of Ukraine says that the entire chain of those involved in the sabotage at the depots in Svatove in 2015 was established thanks to the agent infiltration into Russian special forces.

Bohdan Marusyak