Image credit: The TV channel Belarus One.
MINSK, 19 September (BelTA) – Conspirators, who worked out a plan to seize power in Belarus in 2021, intended to eliminate the Belarus president by shooting down his helicopter or the motorcade. One of the conspirators Yuri Zenkovich revealed it as part of the film “Murderous conspiracy. Target: Lukashenko” aired by the TV channel Belarus One, BelTA has learned. Yuri Zenkovich was sentenced to 11 years in prison in September 2022.
According to Yuri Zenkovich, the initial plan was based on a classic military coup. Groups of radicals were standing by if the army refused to fire at the head of state. They were ready to shoot down the president’s helicopter during a takeoff or a landing using a heavy machine gun. “The destruction of the helicopter would send a signal for the military to proceed according to the [military coup] plan I’ve mentioned,” Yuri Zenkovich added.
He also mentioned what fate awaited the person, who was supposed to eliminate the president. “World history teaches us that a person, who is directly responsible for lifting a hand against a head of state, must be eliminated. Rather fast and rather pointedly. Any person, who replaces a head of state, values their life. And bad examples can be inspiring. If one head of state can be eliminated, then the next one can be eliminated as well. This is why fast and public elimination of the person, who has lifted a hand against a head of state, should discourage similar crimes in the future.”
Yuri Zenkovich stated that in addition to a group of military personnel they had had a group described as civil self-defense units. They declared their desperate desire to kill the head of state. Nikolai Avtukhovich came up with the plan to gun down the helicopter using a heavy machine gun. In October 2022 he faced charges on 12 articles of the Criminal Code, including six that deal with grave crimes. The Grodno Oblast Court found Nikolai Avtukhovich guilty on all charges. He was sentenced to a total of 25 years in prison.
“I contacted Nikolai Avtukhovich as a former military. He said it would be quite difficult to accomplish using a grenade launcher. But he believed that using a machine gun is a more reliable option,” Yuri Zenkovich stated.
Apart from that, he added that the Ukrainian citizen Denis Khromov (Hoffman), who had lived in Germany for the previous few years, came up with the Silence plan: “I received this plan from him. Destroying the motorcade of the head of state using a grenade launcher was part of the Silence plan. I passed it on to other members of the group. The plan was criticized and another variant of this plan was presented.”
Yuri Zenkovich noted he had tried to stay away from Hoffman because the latter is a Ukrainian citizen, who does not value Belarusian lives. “It seems to me he also acted in the interests of his own country. During a conversation with me he very emphatically suggested that I should come to Kiev. When I asked him why, he told me he was not authorized to tell me that for now. But I should trust him and fly to Kiev. At the Borispol airport they wanted to blindfold me, bring me to some institution or a basement and submit me to an interrogation facilitated by a lie detector. If I passed the lie detector, they would tell me why I was brought to Kiev,” he said.
“Although the offer looked quite appealing, I decided to turn it down because my life and my freedom are more precious to me than some strange games that most likely involve Ukraine’s security agencies,” Yuri Zenkovich noted.
Yuri Zenkovich said he could not say who had been behind Hoffman. “Back then Ukraine had so many state and private armed groups that those people could have been anyone,” he concluded.
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