Separatists acted on a tip to capture SBU officers
Russian media released shocking photos of three men in their underwear, bruised and blindfolded, and covered in blood. They are three SBU officers captured in the city of Horlivka in Donetsk region on April 26.
Ukraine's State Security Service has reason to believe that the separatists who captured three of its high-ranking officers, acted on a tip from insiders, says Maryna Ostapenko, the SBU's spokeswoman.
The SBU officers were captured in the city of Horlivka in Donetsk region on April 26. They were then transported to Sloviansk and are still kept there, the SBU believes.
Several Russian media released shocking photos and videos footage of three men in their underwear, bruised and blindfolded, and covered in blood. The men were questioned by the Russian media and confessed of being SBU officers on an assignment within the framework of the anti-terrorist operation.
Their ID’s were filed lying on the table, showing they were a lieutenant colonel, a major and a captain of the elite Alfa department of the SBU.
Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported that they were sent from Kyiv with order to capture Igor Bezler, one of the leaders of separatists in Donetsk. Bezler is a Russian national, who is working for Russian military intelligence and was put on SBU wanted list.
Ostapenko said that SBU has information that three officers were captured because of an information leak, but assured it came not from anti-terrorist center’s headquarters.
“We are seeking and have almost identified where information was leaked from. We knew they were under surveillance,” she said. “I hope soon we will be able to tell who betrayed, how and for what.”
Ostapenko added that about 40 people are now kept by separatists as hostages in Sloviansk and assured that Ukraine’s security forces are working to release them. She did not provide any details.
Previously, separatists said they would exchange hostages for their own militants, but Ostapenko said there were no negotiations about any exchange as of yet.
Among the hostages, there are seven members of the military monitoring mission of Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). They were captured on April 25 and only one of them was later released for medical reasons.
SBU showed a transcript of an intercepted telephone conversation that allegedly proved that the detention of OSCE monitors was conducted by the order of Igor Strelkov, also wanted by SBU. He is a Russian military intelligence officer, who is now residing on Sloviansk and whose real name is Igor Girkin.
Ostapenko said that the SBU caught Igor Perepechayenko, the deputy of the self-proclaimed leader of Sloviansk, Viacheslav Ponomariov.
In a video of Perepechayenko’s interrogation demonstrated by the SBU, he said that on April 22 he travelled to Moscow by charter flight to give interview to a Russian TV channel and also to get instructions from the Russian security services.
They gave me $19,000 in Moscow and also special devices,” Perepecheyenko said in the video. The SBU officers found in Perepechayenko’s possession a phone tapping device given to him in Moscow.
There have been about 40 people detained by SBU for spying in Ukraine to date, including 25 Russian nationals. But the Ukrainian media have not been allowed access to these people, causing speculation that the SBU may be exaggerating its success.
Ostapenko said that, unlike the separatists, the SBU treats the detainees well. “Look at our officers with blood on their faces and look at Perepechayenko, who sits as a regular man at the table and just speaks,” she told the Kyiv Post.
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