“At first there were threats of dismissals, criminal proceedings, which were allegedly transmitted from the Office of the President. operations, “- said Chervinsky.
According to him, the leadership forced the scouts to remain silent and assert that there was no special operation to capture the mercenaries.
“In the 20th of February of this year, we were with the heads of our divisions – and they said it in plain text. I, a person who conducted at least 10 operations and knows this best of those who might know, tried to convince me that it was The Russian operation was funny. I had no desire to talk to them about it. Therefore, threats began. They said that our passports would be canceled. I did not believe it, since I served in the Security Service for 20 years. I understand that to cancel passports there must be legal grounds. But when the situation occurred with [уволенным из ГУР] Yuri [Семенюком], I realized that this is possible in our country, “- said Chervinsky.
He also noted that after the publication by journalist Yanina Sokolova internal documents of Ukrainian intelligence pressure was put on the staff of the GUR MO. They were required to tell them that Chervinsky and Semenyuk had allegedly leaked these documents.
“This is classified information to bring us to criminal responsibility. Threatened their health, life, threatened with dismissal. Surrealism began before our eyes. Therefore, we are here to, perhaps, thus stop it,” – said the intelligence officer.
Authorities of Ukraine invalidated the passports of five former employees The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, which was preparing a special operation code-named “Avenue” to detain the militants of the PMC “Wagner”. This is stated in the investigation of Schem journalists (project UA: Pershy and Radio Svoboda), published on November 25.
In May 2021, at that time, Semenyuk, already dismissed from the GUR, learned about the invalidation of his document right at the border, when he was banned from leaving, and his passport was seized and destroyed.
November 17 Bellingcat published a joint investigation with the Russian edition of The Insider on the detention of 33 soldiers of the Russian PMC “Wagner” in Belarus on July 29, 2020. Investigators found out that in fact the arrival of militants in Belarus was part of a failed special operation, which was carried out by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the counterintelligence department of the Security Service of Ukraine. The purpose of the operation was to detain the Wagnerites, many of whom took part in the hostilities in the Donbas on the side of the pro-Russian militants. For this, a group of employees of the Ukrainian special services recruited mercenaries of the Wagner PMC, ostensibly to work in Venezuela.
Due to the pandemic and restrictions on flights, it was decided to take the mercenaries from Russia to Minsk, and from there send them to Istanbul by plane. One of the elements of the operation was to be a forced landing of an aircraft in Ukraine. The final of the operation was scheduled for July 25, but at the last moment it was postponed for five days – and the plan failed.
The head of the GUR in 2016-2020, Vasily Burba, told Bellingcat that President Vladimir Zelensky knew about the special operation and approved its implementation, and Ermak asked to postpone the special operation for a few days to enter into force the armistice agreement in the Donbass. Burba later stated that Yermak allegedly told him that the order to postpone the operation came from the president… Burba believes that her it was impossible to transfer and this is one of the reasons for the failure of the operation.
The ex-head of the GUR also said that the employees of the department who worked on the operation on the Wagnerians, fired from the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and took their cover documents from them, and he himself was dismissed when he made a list of people who knew about the special operation.
On November 26, at a press marathon, Zelensky said that did not issue an order to postpone the operation to detain the Wagnerites, since all his orders related to the operation were in writing. He stressed that Yermak could not give the head of military intelligence any orders related to the operation at all.
Zelenskiy also said that the landing of a Turkish Airlines plane in Ukraine during the planned special operation could have resulted in other passengers of the plane being injured. He said that does not consider this operation to be Ukrainian… Zelensky named Burba “adventurer and swindler” and stated that Burba wanted to involve Ukraine into a “huge scandal” with Turkish President Recep Erdogan.
“I am ashamed of this episode in the life of our intelligence, outstanding intelligence officers. I am ashamed. I say that we were weak in this operation,” Zelensky said.
–
– .
