Donetsk, Oct 3 – DAN. The suspects in the case over the blasting of DPR Council of Ministers Deputy Chairman Alexander Timofeyev’s car shared details of the assassination attempt, bomb planting, conspiracy and use of covert ops equipment at a news conference in Donetsk on Tuesday.
Earlier reports said that Denis Derpishin and Igor Yevtyushin had been recruited by the Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine. The assassination had been planned for several months.
“Our task was to plant a bomb on the way of the motorcade carrying the high-placed official and set it off once it appeared,” Derpishin said as he began his story.
“We were told the itinerary of the ’mark’,” he went on, “our assignment was to confirm it and check out the frequency and time of use of that route. After 20 July, a video camera disguised as a tree trunk was installed on the route.”
The camera was delivered by a person with the call-sign “Hornet”, supposedly a Ukrainian Chief Directorate of Intelligence officer. “Hornet” controlled the preparations and was responsible for carrying out the operation.
The second suspect said that it had been planned to use two radio-controlled MON-90 mines to blow up the official’s car. The explosives had been kept in a safe garage.
“In late August, “Hornet” said that security had been tightened at DPR checkpoints and that queueing took five to six hours, after Ukrainian secret service agents had been apprehended. He said 1,200 people had been nabbed and questioned in Donetsk. “Hornet” later told me that a Ukrainian secret service agent would bring the explosive device to the garage I had rented. “Hornet” also said that a liaison had instructed him to supervise the delivery and monitor the agent due the recent problem,” Yevtyushin said.
“We watched the garage for several days; once, a beige Volga drove inside and stayed there several minutes. Then it left the garage cooperative and headed for the city centre,” he said.
Arranging surveillance over the car was not possible as the suspects lost track. They found the mines in the garage and brought them to the designated spot on the named day. Evacuation of the perpetrators had to follow the blasting of the mines.
“We phoned “Hornet” to tell that we were standing by (for evacuation – eds Donetsk News Agency), but he didn’t answer the call. We kept phoning him for two hours. He only responded after the action (blasting – eds Donetsk News Agency) had been carried through. Then we sat in a cafe in Makeyevka for a long time awaiting evacuation,” Derpishin said.
The suspect said that the evacuation plan had been careless and that “Hornet” who had no opportunity to send a car to collect the dynamiters, contacted the Ukrainian secret service that sent a taxi. “When we came to the checkpoint there was a huge queue. We lost much time exiting giving DPR State Security Ministry enough time to detain us,” Derpishin said.
The perpetrators had been provided with several fake passports and driving licenses. The organizers had rented secure apartments and garages during the planning stage. The perpetrators communicated with their supervisors using WhatsApp and LINE. Ukrainian secret services promised to pay 5,000 U.S. dollars to each perpetrator for successful operation.
The car carrying DPR Council of Ministers Deputy Chairman, Tax and Revenue Minister Alexander Timofeyev was blasted in Donetsk on 23 September. The Ministry’s press service told DAN on the same day that the official had not been hurt. DPR head Alexander Zakharchenko later said the Republic’s secret service had detained suspected perpetrators. *jk
