March 26, 2024 (EIRNS)—The recruitment of Tajiks to paramilitary operations against Russia has been attributed to Ukraine’s embassy in Tajikistan, according to Russia’s former Special Service officer, Colonel (ret.) Bakhtiyer Rakhmonov. As reported in Sputnik, Rakhmonov explained that the embassy posted at least two calls for recruitment to Ukraine’s “International Legion” (IL). Quoting Sputnik:
“Recruitment of the killers for the terrorist attack took place through the Ukrainian Embassy in Dushanbe, its ambassador is the former head of foreign intelligence, and the consulate itself, several weeks before the terrorist attack, was looking for executors, having openly published on the page of the Ukrainian Embassy in Tajikistan an order to hire assassins.” It added that everything was there, so “a potential terrorist only had to write or call... The work on the recruitment of foreigners was led by Ukraine’s Ambassador Extraordinary Valeriy Yevdokimov—former head of the Foreign Intelligence Service under Zelensky.”
Yevdokimov held that post only from September 2019 to June 2020. He is a 54-year-old major general, and graduate of the SBU’s National Academy. He was appointed to Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council on Oct. 15, 2019. President Zelensky appointed him on June 24, 2022 (by Decree 444/2022) as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Tajikistan.
