The Security Service of Ukraine on Feb. 4 arrested a suspected traitor working in the military's General Staff. The suspect is believed to have been plotting an armed attack on Parliament to disrupt the lawmakers' session on Feb. 5, SBU chief Valentyn Nalyvaichenko reported.
The suspect was identified as Mykhailo Chornobay, a lieutenant colonel of the Ukrainian army, who headed a department in General Staff. A suspected accomplice was arrested at the same time.
Chornobay cooperated with an agent of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and received orders from Russian secret services, Nalyvaichenko said.
Chornobay could not be reached for comment.
At about 3 p.m. on Feb. 4, SBU officers captured a cache of weapons near Kyiv. The seized material included 10 grenade launchers, guns of various caliber, ammunition and explosives to be used against Parliament. Lawmakers on Feb. 5 may vote to recognize Russian-backed separatist groups as terrorist organizations.
“This cargo was stopped, the arms were taken away, all the accomplices of these traitors were detained,” Nalyvaichenko said. Police are also looking for other suspects.
He said the suspects were also behind a protest organized near the Presidential Administration on Feb. 3, allegedly by fighters of volunteer battalions in opposition to President Petro Poroshenko. Numerous Russian media and also Vesti Ukrainian newspaper, known for its pro-Russian stance, reported that fighters of Aidar and Kyiv Rus volunteer battalions tried to storm the Presidential Adminisration. But this was false, Nalyvaichenko said.
Nalyvaichenko said that Chornobay and his accomplices got people to participate in the protests who had never served in Ukraine’s military or in volunteer battalions.
According to the SBU, Chornobay worked as an instructor in one of the volunteer battalions, where he spread false information about the poor state of the Ukrainian army with the aim to stir discontent with the ranks. He also shared secret information about the location of the Ukrainian military with suspected accomplices, who shared it with Kalmius, a Kremlin-backed battalion operating in Donetsk Oblast.
The security service officers arrested the two men as they were meeting to exchange secret information, the SBU said.
Nalyvaichenko also reported that Ukrainian counter-intelligence service killed 11 Kremlin-backed fighters responsible for massive shelling of Mariupol city on Jan. 24, when 30 civilians were killed and about 100 wounded. He said the operation happened in the village of Bezimenne of Donetsk Oblast, territory controlled by separatists.
“The Russian officer terrorist, who directed the Russian artillery, and all of his 10 accomplices have been eliminated,” Nalyvaichenko said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at [email protected]
