The alleged gunman, Lubomir Korba, in the Feb. 6 attempted assassination of Russian General Vladimir Alekseyev, has confessed to investigators that he acted on orders of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), according to an interview video released today by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha had told Reuters two days ago that Ukraine had no involvement and then added: “We don’t know what happened with that particular general—maybe it was their own internal Russian infighting.”
Korba stated that he was recruited by Kiev’s SBU last August, was trained in Kiev, and was sent to Moscow via Moldova and Georgia to surveil several targets. He was paid $2,000/month. In December, the order to prepare a hit on Alekseyev was given and he was to be paid $30,000. “After the assassination attempt, I was instructed to go to the airport and take a flight to Dubai. In Dubai there was a ticket to Romania. From Romania I was supposed to be taken to Kiev. My group of handlers led by a general was supposed to meet me in Kiev.”
There are two SBU generals at the top of the list. While General Khmara, the head of the SBU, certainly is one possibility, his first deputy head, General Oleksandr Poklad, may be indicated here. Poklad has served as the head of the SBU’s Counterintelligence Department and he is the prime suspect in the March 2022 execution of Ukrainian negotiator Denis Kiryeev. He is viewed as a fierce enforcer. More recently, he is reported to have shown up at negotiations with Russia to ride herd on the Ukrainian negotiators. This would point to the targeting of Alekseyev, close to the head of the Russian delegation, as yet another sabotage of the negotiations.
