The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has carried out an unprecedented operation to detain a major general in its own ranks.
On April 14, agents took Valery Shaitanov into custody on charges of working for Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). According to the Ukrainian security agency, he had received orders from the FSB to organize the murder of prominent Chechen activist and war veteran Adam Osmayev.
Osmayev was wounded in a 2017 attack that took the life of his wife.
SBU Chief Ivan Bakanov termed Shaitanov’s arrest “a crucial operation performed by the Security Service.” The major general will now be charged with treason and terrorism by the Prosecutor General’s Office.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine long maintained close political ties and security cooperation with Russia. With the start of the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine in 2014, Russian infiltration of the country’s military and law enforcement agencies became a serious concern.
Shaitanov’s arrest is an unusually stark example of this danger: a top-level security official allegedly working as a double agent for Russia’s security agency.
Shaitanov’s portfolio
Shaitanov was the former head of the SBU’s special operations department, according to a report the security agency published on April 14. The department’s primary task is counterterrorism.
The SBU suggests that Shaitanov was recruited by FSB Colonel Igor Egorov, whom he knew before the start of Russia’s war in eastern Ukraine. Back then, the FSB colonel was a frequent visitor to Ukraine, where he took part in joint workshops often led by the FSB.
The SBU says Shaitanov was recruited during one of those workshops.
In 2014, Russia invaded Ukraine, annexing Crimea and occupying parts of the eastern Donbas region. In the ensuing six years, more than 13,000 people have lost their lives as a result of the conflict. The SBU now alleges that Shaitanov was working for Russia all along.
The agency suggests that Shaitanov was leaking secret information to Russia, including about covert operations carried out against the Kremlin’s proxies in the Donbas. Additionally, the SBU accuses him of recruiting lower-ranking officers to work for the FSB and take part in assassination plots.
To support its allegations, the SBU published a number of audio recordings suggesting that Shaitanov communicated with Egorov through a lower-ranking SBU official, referred to as N.
In October 2019, Shaitanov allegedly gave N orders to prepare the killing of someone they referred to as “captain.” In a November audio clip, N allegedly meets Egorov in France and uses “Osmayev” interchangeably with “captain,” forcing Egorov to ask N to stop talking about killing Osmayev aloud.
Meanwhile, N asks Egorov for $200,000 and a Russian passport, to which Egorov agrees.
The Security Service also provided photos of an alleged meeting between Egorov and Shaitanov in Croatia. N met Egorov in France and Germany.
To explain Shaitanov’s motives, the SBU published an audio clip suggesting that he was angered by the ousting of corrupt pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych during the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution.
In the clip, a man said to be Shaitanov denigrates the EuroMaidan protesters, more than 100 of whom died during the revolution. He also calls EuroMaidan a coup, echoing Russian propaganda.
Who is Osmayev?
Osmayev, the intended target of the alleged Russian assassination plot, is a high-profile war veteran of Chechen origin. In 2012, he was detained in Odesa and charged with plotting an assassination of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine released him in 2014, after Russia invaded. Soon Osmayev took up arms and joined the newly created Chechen volunteer battalion fighting on Ukraine’s side. In 2015, he took charge of the battalion after the previous leader was killed in action.
Osmayev has survived two assassination attempts in the past, one of which took the life of his wife, Amina Okueva, a high-profile activist and veteran of the war in eastern Ukraine.
On Oct. 30, 2017, a group of people opened fire on the car Osmayev and Okueva were traveling in near the village of Hlevakha, just 10 kilometers outside Kyiv. Okueva was killed, Osmayev wounded.
Just months earlier, in June 2017, a man posing as a journalist for the French Le Monde newspaper met the couple, allegedly for an interview, and shot at Osmayev. Okueva fired back from her Makarov pistol, injuring the attacker and saving their lives.
On Jan. 12, police said they had arrested a gang of seven people who allegedly organized and performed the murder of Okueva and other killings.
