The SBU has exposed a former deputy head of the State Emergency Service and the leader of a political party for planning terrorist attacks
The Security Service of Ukraine thwarted a series of terrorist attacks, arson attacks, and a contract killing that were planned to be carried out on Ukrainian territory.
Following a multi-stage operation, charges were filed against the former deputy head of the State Emergency Service and his accomplices. According to the SBU, they were plotting to assassinate a civil society activist.
Law enforcement officials also documented the activities of the head of the Chernihiv regional branch of a well-known political party. While in hiding abroad, he, according to the investigation, organized and financed terrorist attacks and arson in western and northern Ukraine.
It has been established that members of the criminal group were planning to detonate a construction crane near a residential complex in Chernihiv.
According to the organizers’ plan, after the explosion, the crane was supposed to fall onto a nearby apartment building and civilian cars, thereby causing numerous casualties among local residents.
To carry out the crime, the suspects sought out operatives, using personal connections within the criminal underworld.
This task was primarily handled by another leader of the group, who operated under the guise of being the head of a regional branch of a well-known civic organization.
But the perpetrators had no idea that, even at this stage, their every move was being documented by officers of the Security Service of Ukraine.
As a result of these preemptive actions, an operational operation was carried out, through which agents were successfully “integrated” into the criminal group and a simulated explosion was staged.
In this way, SBU officers prevented yet another terrorist attack — the bombing of the TCC in the Carpathian region, where the “perpetrators,” following instructions received from the organizers, had constructed a homemade bomb using plastic explosives and electric detonators, intending to throw it through a window of the administrative building.
With the assistance of the leadership of the TCC and the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional State Administration, SBU officers managed to simulate an explosion on the grounds of the administrative building.
After that, a former State Emergency Service official ordered the bombing of the private homes of the chief judge and two other judges of the Chernihiv Court of Appeals, who in 2024 had sentenced him to seven years in prison for car theft.
The former high-ranking official also ordered an assassination attempt on a local activist. The target turned out to be a blogger from the Chernihiv region, whom the suspect instructed to have his limbs shot with a firearm and then doused with sulfuric acid.
As part of a sting operation, the assassination attempt—as well as the arson attacks—was thwarted, and their organizers were charged under several articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine corresponding to the crimes committed:
