Four recruited individuals acted on orders from a handler in the Russian Armed Forces’ General Staff and clearly divided roles in preparing the crimes. Their activities were documented, and the agents were detained.
Coordination was carried out by a 39-year-old officer of the Kubinka special purpose center of Russia’s security services, call sign Meteor, who specializes in reconnaissance and sabotage operations in Ukraine, officials said.
Police emphasized that to carry out the plans, he recruited four individuals, including a former law enforcement officer. They tracked potential targets among public figures and commanders of Ukrainian security units, after which they prepared to carry out the crimes, officials added.
Law enforcement said one of the agents, the head of a security company, provided the “team” with transportation, while a 46-year-old internally displaced woman from Zaporizhzhia drove the vehicle, delivering the hitman to the crime scene and taking him to a pre-rented apartment.
They said the perpetrator was a man previously convicted of robbery, recruited in 2022 through a resident agent of the security service. Police said communication between the participants was maintained through foreign messengers without saving chat history, and that weapons and ammunition were obtained from hidden caches in Kyiv and Cherkasy oblasts.
All members of the network were detained while preparing the murder of a commander of one of Kyiv’s volunteer units. During searches, law enforcement seized weapons, SIM cards and mobile phones containing evidence of illegal activity. It was also established that the agents planned several more killings using explosives planted under vehicles.
All participants have been notified of suspicion under Part 2 of Article 111 (high treason), Part 2 of Article 15 and clauses 6, 11, 12 of Part 2 of Article 115 (attempted premeditated murder for profit, committed on order and by prior conspiracy by a group of persons), and Part 2 of Article 362 (unauthorized actions with information processed in computers, automated systems, computer networks or stored on such media by a person with access) of Ukraine’s Criminal Code. They face from 10 years to life imprisonment with confiscation of property.
The handler and his resident agent were notified in absentia of suspicion under Part 2 of Article 111 (high treason), Part 2 of Article 15 and Part 2 of Article 28, Part 2 of Article 113 (attempted sabotage committed by prior conspiracy by a group of persons), and Part 2 of Article 15 and clauses 6, 11, 12 of Part 2 of Article 115 (attempted premeditated murder) of Ukraine’s Criminal Code.