Russian media: Ukrainian Security Service was behind Zakharchenko assassination
The so-called “intelligence agency” of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) believes that the assassination of DPR ringleader Aleksandr Zakharchenko was orchestrated by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), an anonymous representative of the “agency” told Russia 1 in an interview.
According to the source, the SBU’s 2nd department organizes operations in the DPR for the 5th directorate (counterintelligence department). The DPR “intelligence agency” claims to know the names of all the employees from that department who were “complicit” in the “crime” committed in the Donbas.
The s urce identified one of the organizers of the “act of terror” in the DPR as Serhiy Motorin, head of the 5th directorate, who is supposedly originally from the Donbas, having served in Slovyansk. The agency believes that Motorin assisted in the planning of the mission to assassinate Alksandr Zakharchenko and Arseny “Motorola” Pavlov.
The source also mentioned his agency’s other suspects: the Ukrainian intelligence officers Vladislav Dolhozvyah and Andriy Mushta and agents Andriy “Swede” Baydal, Andriy Otenko and Damir Bashtannikov.
The DPR intelligence agency claims to have arrested the agents Serhiy Beshta and Vladislav Zaytsev, who “provided information about their SBU supervisors”. Those mentioned by name include SBU counterintelligence chief Roman Chernivsky and his deputies Maxym Popov and Oleksandr Poklad.
DPR ringleader Aleksandr Zakharchenko was killed on 31 August last year in an explosion in a cafe in the center of Donetsk. The DPR immediately declared the incident an “act of terror” and held the SBU responsible.