Large-scale terrorist attacks prevented in Ukraine - SBU chief
KYIV. March 9 (Interfax) - Massive acts of terrorism have been prevented in Ukraine, the head of Ukraine's Security Service, or SBU, Vasyl Hrytsak said.
"We have prevented massive terror attacks in Ukraine [...] Thousands of civilians, certain politicians, public officials, parliamentarians could have been among victims," Hrytsak told reporters in Kyiv on Friday.
Hrytsak made the suggestion that Russia was coordinating the actions of Volodymyr Ruban, chief of the Prisoner Release Center, who was caught on Thursday trying to smuggle an arsenal of weapons and was later accused of preparing attacks on senior state officials. "Do you believe that [...] there wasn't a sanction from Moscow? [...] We don't believe it," Hrytsak told reporters in Kyiv on Friday.
The SBU "has material proof" of the leaders of the Donbas self-proclaimed republics, including Alexander Zakharchenko, being implicated in the preparation of "a terror attack in the Ukrainian capital involving use of weapons, including those of Russian origin," he said.
Referring to the detention of Ruban, Hrytsak said that weapons seized from him included Kalashnikov assault rifles, Makarov pistols, grenades, silencers, mortar shells, and bullets, with part of the weapons made in Russia.