Russian special services attempted to assassinate Ukraine’s top security officials, says SBU
The SBU detained the killers (Photo:ssu.gov.ua)
Russian special services attempted to assassinate Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov and Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, but their plans failed, the acting head of Ukraine’s SBU security service, Vasyl Malyuk, said in an interview with journalist Natalia Moseichuk on Dec. 21.
According to Malyuk, the enemy sent an agent to Ukraine to carry out the attack, and prior to that, the Russians had set a “verification task” to existing enemy agents in the country to eliminate a different military officer.
“There was a test run for committing this crime, an imitation,” the SBU head said.
“They (Russians) received photo reviews and paid for them. Later they realized they could get it to work and sent a perpetrator for the big crime. At first, they paid $100,000 to get it all started, and we caught them in the process.”
Malyuk said the perpetrator had entered Ukraine through a third country.
“We have more than one such stories, up to 10 of them,” the official said.
The SBU chief reported that he has also faced multiple Russian assassination attempts.
“We won’t reveal everything, as they’re also learning from their shameful practices,” he said.
“They’re working not only on me personally, but also many high-ranking officials in our country.”
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