The SSU Military Counterintelligence, the Main Investigation Directorate, the SSU Special Operations Centre ‘A’, and the SSU Office in Donetsk and Luhansk regions thwarted a new attempt by ruscists to carry out a series of contract killings in Ukraine.

As a result of a special operation, personally coordinated by the SSU First Deputy Head Oleksandr Poklad, an operational and combat group of russia’s military intelligence (the GRU) has been neutralized, and a hitman who resisted arrest with a weapon has been eliminated. More than 10 other members of the cell have been taken into custody.

As the investigation established, the group was planning murders of prominent figures in several regions of our country.

Among them are Serhiy Sternenko, an advisor to the Minister of Defence and a volunteer, as well as russian national Ilya Bogdanov, who has been fighting for Ukraine since 2014.

To carry out the assassinations, the perpetrators tracked the addresses and travel routes of military personnel and public figures, sending the collected data to the group’s leader, the resident.

The latter turned out to be a forensic expert from Poltava recruited by the GRU. He compiled the intelligence and reported to the russian handlers.

The occupiers then directly transmitted data on potential victims to the hitman, including residential addresses and travel routes.

According to the investigation, the hitman is a native of the temporarily occupied part of Donetsk region. There, he underwent combat training at a GRU base and was later deployed to the territory controlled by Ukraine.

As has been established, he was to manufacture improvised explosive devices and plant them under the vehicles or near the residences of his victims.

In the event of a failed explosion, the hitman received instructions from his russian handler to shoot the victims point-blank.

During the searches of the suspects’ premises, investigators seized firearms, ammunition, voice recorders, computer equipment, and surveillance cameras, along with evidence of their work for the russian intelligence.

The operation’s success was largely achieved thanks to the infiltration of enemy ranks by our agents and the efforts of the counterintelligence officers of the SSU Poltava Office, as well as a complex of operational and combat measures in the temporarily occupied territory. The Service’s sources have been evacuated to Ukraine-controlled territory and are safe.

SSU investigators have notified the detainees of suspicion under the Articles of the CCU:

• 28.2, 111.2 (high treason, committed by a group, by prior conspiracy, under martial law);
• 28.2, 111-1.7 (collaboration, committed by a group, by prior conspiracy);
• 114-2.2 (unauthorised dissemination of information on movement, transfer, or deployment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or other lawful military formations, committed under martial law);
• 14.1, 258.2 (preparation for a terrorist act, committed by a group, by prior conspiracy);
• 263.1 (illegal handling of weapons, ammunition, or explosives).

The suspects are in custody without bail and face life imprisonment with confiscation of property.

The operation was carried out under the procedural supervision of the Prosecutor General’s Office.