Donetsk, Sep 18 - DAN. A former agent of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Department for Protection of Statehood in the Donetk region gave information to the Donetsk People’s Republic State Securit Ministry (MGB) on the training of Ukrainian commandos tasked with assassinating DPR leaders, the MGB website reported on Tuesday.
“Former agent of the SBU's Donetsk region department Vladimir Boltenko turned himself in to the MGB. He told the interrogating officer that he had worked for the SBU in Mariupol in the period from 2014 through 2016,” the MGB said. “He said he had repeatedly witnessed the training of commando teams which were formed to assassinate high-placed DPR officials.”
The State Security Service Ministry showed a video of Boltenko telling about himself, the measures planned by the Ukrainian secret services jointly with nationalistic battalions to detect separatist sentiments among the local population, and the tortures the SBU used to force residents into confession. “Detainees were tortured by electric shock, suffocation or drowning and subjected to other humiliating actions,” Boltenko said.
“I also witnessesd the training of commando teams by SBU officers to carry out terrorist attacks against high-ranking officials,” he added.
Boltenko repeatedly criticiesed SBU methods. In 2016, he decided to leave Mariupol and return to Donetsk where he had lived before the conflict. He began to cooperate with the DPR’s State Security Ministry in August 2018.
An explosion ripped through a restaurant in central Donetsk at around 17:00 on August 31, killing the Republic’s Head Alexander Zakharchenko and his guard. Twelve people were wounded; five of them were hospitalised and outpatient treatment was provided to another seven. Specialists from the Russian Federation are taking part in the investigation into the DPR Head murder case. One person has been detained in connection with the murder.*jk