You're reading: SBU chief: FSB employees involved in planning operation on Independence Square in Kyiv (UPDATE)

Chief of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Valentyn Nalyvaichenko has said that there is every reason to believe that a group of employees of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) participated in planning and implementing measures on the so-called anti-terrorist operation in Kyiv during mass protests in February 2014.

“We have reasonable grounds to believe that these groups, who were on
one of the SBU firing grounds, participated in planning and
implementing measures on the so-called anti-terrorist operation,” he
said at a briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.

“An answer from the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation
is very important to us. We are interested in two questions. The first –
December 20, 2013: at an SBU firing range, there were 26 employees of
the FSB of the Russian Federation. Let them give us an answer what they
did, their ranks and posts. In mid January 2014 – there were six
employees, citizens of the Russian Federation – what did they do, what
tasks did they have, and what did they plan?” Nalyvaichenko said.

Nalyvaichenko said there is a court ruling for the detention of Viktor
Yanukovych and former Ukrainian Security Service director Oleksandr Yakymenko
regarding the aforementioned events.

“There are detention and arrest warrants for Yanukovych, former Ukrainian
Security Service director Yakymenko, and other organizers of the so-called
anti-terrorist operation, which was essentially a mass killing of citizens,” he
said.