FSB announces the capture of new ‘Ukrainian saboteurs’ in Crimea
The style of the report is familiar since summer 2016 when the Ukrainian volunteer Yevhen Panov and the so-called ‘saboteur’ group were arrested by the Russian chekists.
FSB press service has announced that the so-called members of a ‘saboteur and terrorist group’ of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate were captured in Sevastopol on Wednesday, November 9. The ‘saboteurs’ are said to have infiltrated through Crimea’s frontier (which has been strictly controlled by the occupiers) with powerful explosives, weapons, ammunition, special communication tools and maps of Crimean strategic facilities. They allegedly planned ‘subversive activities’ at power plants, waterworks, and gas distribution networks.
The Russian media have preliminarily named the detainees: Oleksiy Bessarabov, Dmytro Shtyblikov, and Volodymyr Dudko. A court in Sevastopol has sent them to pretrial jail for two months. All the three have allegedly acknowledged their ‘guilt’ and are giving the ‘evidence.’ A source of Interfax news agency claims that a network of ‘informants’ was uncovered as a result of a ‘special operation,’ and therefore new arrests cannot be ruled out.
Before the annexation of Crimea, the arrested Shtybilkov and Bessarabov worked for Nomos think tank in Sevastopol. That is why they were likely to be targeted by the Russian security officers hunting after fictitious ‘enemies.’
The Defense Ministry of Ukraine states that the fake ‘revelations’ aim at hiding real repression in the occupied territories, discredit Ukraine and justify the reasonability of the Russian counterintelligence’s very existence.
As is known, the previous ‘Crimean saboteurs case’ was launched and given publicity exactly four months ago, on the eve of the G20 summit in China. Vladimir Putin referred to that case when turning down the ‘Norman format’ talks with Petro Poroshenko. The current portion of ‘confessions’ wrested from the new detainees emerged immediately after Donald Trump’s triumph at US election, which was met by the Russian government with unconcealed exultation. The occupation ex-‘prosecutor’ of Crimea Natalia Poklonskaya, who had yesterday called on the future US president to fulfill his supposed “promises to recognize the Crimean referendum,” has today suggested that Russia should take “appropriate measures” in the international arena in response to the attempted “destabilization” in Crimea.
Read also: Russia makes new ‘Crimean Saboteur’ Arrests’ with old Right Sector card as ‘proof’
