NUCLEAR POWER IN BELARUS AND WORLDWIDE
MINSK, 7 March (BelTA) – Konstantin Bychek, Deputy Chief of the Investigation Office of the State Security Committee (KGB), talked to reporters and revealed how exactly a Ukrainian terrorist and his accomplices had been captured in Belarus, BelTA has learned.
Konstantin Bychek said: “The State Security Committee in association with the Internal Affairs Ministry, the State Border Committee, and other law enforcement agencies carried out a massive special operation. The Ukrainian citizen Nikolai Vladimirovich Shvets born in 1993 was arrested in a safe house as a result. He had tried to commit an act of terrorism at the Belarusian military airfield Machulishchi on 26 February 2023. As a result of counterintelligence actions the KGB found out that operatives and high-ranking officers of Ukraine's security service SBU had been directly involved in the organization of the terrorist attack. We've uncovered a system used by Ukraine's intelligence agencies to recruit their own citizens for committing acts of terrorism in foreign countries. Cover organizations used for their training and education were identified. The tactics of using explosives, mechanisms of communication and management of agents were studied. Channels for evacuating the agent were uncovered and cut off.”
In his words, initial investigative actions allow concluding that agents recruited by Poland's intelligence services out of the so-called fugitive Belarusians had been involved in preparations for the terrorist attack. Fugitive Belarusians are intent on violently dismantling the constitutional system in Belarus and took an active part in events, which happened in Belarus in August 2020. The operation to search for and detain the criminals was directly controlled by the head of state. He immediately gave instructions to close the state border and take other comprehensive measures aimed at identifying and bringing to justice all those involved in terrorist activities. As a result, a network of agents made up of Belarus citizens, who helped the terrorist agent with his operation, with his legalization in Belarus and with an unsuccessful exfiltration attempt, has been uncovered and liquidated, Konstantin Bychek said. These citizens had been recruited by Belarusian extremist political emigration centers located abroad. In fact, the citizens were used as expendables upon instructions of Ukrainian and Polish intelligence agencies, the KGB officer said.
The Investigation Office of the State Security Committee of Belarus has opened a criminal case on charges specified by article 289 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus. Over 20 individuals have been apprehended, including the Ukrainian security service's agent, who had been directly involved in the attack. The KGB and other government agencies concerned are now searching through the destructive community for individuals that may have been involved in the criminal activities. The captured agent cooperates with the investigators and has given a confession.
