Double agent of Ukrainian Security Service evacuated from DPR
A double agent recruited by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) who worked in the Military Prosecution Office of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has been evacuated from the occupied territory, the Ukrainian Military Portal reports, citing materials from the Facts of the Week program.
The double agent Serhiy Lukyanenko had already provided the SBU with important information about Ukrainian hostages and the presence of Russian military personnel in the temporarily occupied territory.
Lukyanenko worked as a security guard and was frequently present during the interrogation of Ukrainian citizens who were taken as hostages by DPR militants. He began to cooperate with the Ukrainian intelligence agency, and several months later fled the occupied territory.
“Among the information provided by Lukyanenko is evidence of the involvement of regular Russian troops in the aggression against Ukraine, in particular the ‘Interior Security Office’, which falls under the jurisdiction of the DPR Military Prosecution Office where he worked, which was headed by the Russian citizen Shchedrin Dmitry Vasilyevich. In 2014, Shchedrin led the capture of the Donetsk prosecution office building,” the report states.
Shchedrin was also involved in the capture of Crimea. In May 2014, he stayed in the Donbas, where on 11 May he was appointed commander of a reconnaissance company. As of 23 May 2014, he was head of the prosecution office’s special operations department. He was also involved in the fighting around the Donetsk International Airport. Before the Donbas, he fought in Chechnya in 2000 and later in Kosovo.
Apart from information about the leaders of the occupation administration, Lukyanenko also confirmed the location of about 10 Ukrainian prisoners of war who had been considered missing. He also provided a video of the interrogation of Bohdan “Armor” Pantyushenko.
Pantyushenko is a tank commander from Ukraine’s 1st tank brigade. In January 2015, his tank was meant to secure the Putilovskiy Bridge for Ukrainian sappers who planned to destroy the bridge that was being used by the separatists to move out of Donetsk.
At the end of June, the SBU captured Vladimir Tsemakh, the former head of a DPR anti-air brigade who is believed to possess valuable information about Russia’s involvement in the Malaysia Airlines catastrophe over the Donbas. Ukrainian special forces stunned him and transported him into Kyiv-controlled territory disguised as a paralyzed pensioner.