Russia’s FSB detained seven agents of Kiev’s GUR on April 3, pre-empting assassinations of three key Crimean government officials, according to TASS: “The Russian FSB has interdicted the activities of a network of operatives of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate, which had been plotting a series of high-profile sabotage and terrorist attacks in the Republic of Crimea.” The targets were Sergey Aksyonov, head of Crimea; Vladimir Konstantinov, chairman of the Crimean State Council; and Yanina Pavlenko, mayor of Yalta. Additionally, the attacks were intended to target transport infrastructure facilities on the Crimean Peninsula.
A Ukrainian Deputy Head of the Office of the President Roman Mashovets was named as the organizer of the assassination plot: “It has been established that the immediate organizer of the terror attacks and coordinator of preparations for the assassinations of high-ranking officials was Roman Mashovets, a close contact of Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Main Intelligence Directorate (MID) under the Defense Ministry of Ukraine, and an officer in the MID active reserve.” Budanov declared in late April that they can kill Russians anywhere, civilian or otherwise. (https://news.yahoo.com/we-will-keep-killing-russians-ukraines-military-intelligence-chief-vows-232156674.html)
The FSB named the six: Viktor Podvalny (born in 1967), Oleksandr Lytvynenko (born in 1986), Serhiy Kryvosheiin (born in 1988), Kostiantyn Yevmenenko (born in 1971), Ihor Zorin (born in 1972), and Serhiy Voinarovsky (born in 1984), who had been recruited by Mashovets. They used “special technical devices” to surveil the officials, and they obtained firearms. “A Ukrainian and Bulgarian national, D. Petranov (born in 1979), was also detained….” He provided among other things “U.K.-made plastic explosive substances with a total mass of about 6 kilos….” The “explosive substances confiscated … were identical to those used in a terrorist attack on a railroad in Crimea” on Feb. 23, 2023.
