The militants detained him in June 2015 after he was betrayed by a Ukrainian intelligence agent who had defected to the enemy, explains Radio Liberty. In December, the militant-controlled prosecutor’s office accused Mazanko of subversive activities and “treason.” They exchanged it in February 2016. Now Mazanko lives in Odessa.
The journalist asked him during an interview if he regretted collaborating with the special services.
“Now I regret it. Since the beginning of the so-called” Russian spring “and to this day, I constantly come across betrayal in the ranks of law enforcement agencies, betrayal among government officials. Questions began to arise immediately after my arrest. I understood that I was arrested for a reason and not because I was wrong somewhere. I understood that there was a betrayal, but I did not understand who had betrayed, “Mazanko replied.
He believes that the information about him as “agent Miner” was given to the militants by the Ukrainian intelligence officer Miroshnichenko, who went over to their side.
“I read that there is a witness” Alekseev Petr Ivanovich “- this is how Miroshnichenko was encrypted, because he was under protection. He had access to the materials of this unit of the Foreign Intelligence Service department, in June 2015 he switched to the side of the” Ministry of State Security of the LPR “and handed information about me, “Agent Miner.” Therefore, when I was released, when we had time to calmly talk with the operatives of the Foreign Intelligence Service, it turned out that he had not crossed over alone, the whole Miroshnichenko family, a father and two sons, officer, Yuri and Alexei, “- said the ex-prisoner of the militants.
According to him, he has no information whether the treason incident was investigated.
“I don’t know if a criminal case has been opened against Miroshnichenko. I don’t know if there is a court decision in absentia on it. But I know for sure that I am not involved in this matter either as a witness to testify, or even more so as a victim. wrong. No investigation, no noise. In May, former prisoners, agents of the Security Service of Ukraine and other units, who, one way or another, due to negligence, poor professional training or some kind of coincidence, were arrested by the “LPR MGB” or ” The DPR Ministry of State Security “, they served. They were lucky, like me, they were exchanged. These people are used material, they wiped their feet and forgot about us,” Mazanko said.
Immediately after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the Russian Federation began an armed aggression in the east of Ukraine. The fighting is between the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the one hand and the Russian army and Russian-backed militants who control parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on the other. Officially, the Russian Federation does not recognize its invasion of Ukraine, despite the facts and evidence presented by Ukraine.
According to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, during the conflict more than 14 thousand people died.
The Ukrainian authorities and the “LPNR” militants exchanged detainees several times.
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