A detailed “exposure of betrayal at the highest level” in the Wagner case was published in Kyiv
President Zelensky fired the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense Vasily Burba for demanding an investigation into the failure of the operation to capture Russian PMC fighters lured to Minsk - former members of the Donbass militia. Allegedly, the arrest was postponed at the request of the head of the Presidential Office, Andrei Ermak, who did not want to irritate Moscow on the eve of the announcement of a truce in the Donbass.
Ukrainian propagandist Yuri Butusov, editor-in-chief of the website Censor, controlled by ex-Secretary of the Security Council Alexander Turchynov, wrote about this on Facebook, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The Security Service of Ukraine is obliged to open an investigation under the article of high treason, and the Verkhovna Rada is obliged to create an investigative commission to verify the involvement of President Vladimir Zelensky and his inner circle in the leak of information, in the disruption of the secret operation of the SBU and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Moscow Region to detain terrorists in Belarus. But the country's top leadership was involved in the scandal.
The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, Vasily Burba, who demanded a polygraph test of the head of the Office of the President Andrei Ermak and the First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Ruslan Demchenko, immediately after his statement was... fired by Zelensky's decree! Thus, the President of Ukraine, by this dismissal, hid high-ranking officials from undergoing an audit and a criminal case,” Butusov lamented.
Burba
At the same time, he announced that the time had come when it was possible to voice the purpose of the thwarted SBU operation.
Demchenko
“More than a year ago, an operation was launched to search for and detain 28 terrorists living in the Russian Federation in order to ensure justice and replenish the “exchange fund” for the exchange of prisoners, which Russia is blocking.
As part of the group, they planned to detain two terrorists involved in the destruction of the Boeing MH-17 near Torez; one terrorist involved in the destruction of an Il-76 at Lugansk airport; one terrorist involved in the destruction of the AN-26 near Lugansk. 9 terrorists out of 28 were citizens of Ukraine and used Ukrainian passports. 11 people from the group were already in the “Peacemaker” wanted list.
The group was called “Wagnerites” in the media, but most of them did not serve in the real Wagner. They were mercenaries who didn't care who they fought for. During the recruitment of mercenaries, they gave detailed testimony on video about their crimes on the territory of Ukraine - they boasted, thinking that they were showing the level of their “qualifications”.
Ukrainian special services discovered the terrorists. Then they were offered lucrative jobs on behalf of the Russian private military company MAR, created in 2014 in St. Petersburg to recruit mercenaries for the war against Ukraine, but closed by the founders in 2018. The job is guarding oil rigs in Venezuela, where the terrorists received an invitation.
We recruited a group of 33 people (in addition to 28 terrorists, there were also random people). According to the plan, the driver Gennady Kumpan was supposed to transport the entire group on July 24 from Moscow directly to Minsk airport, without stopping in Belarus for a single hour, from where they were supposed to fly on the Minsk-Istanbul flight to Turkey on July 25,” the propagandist said.
He added that, in accordance with the plan, the plane would have landed in Ukraine for certain reasons, the Wagnerites would have been detained, and the passengers and crew would have been able to quickly continue the flight.
Further, restoring the chronology of events, Butusov said that on July 24, during a meeting, the head of the Presidential Office, Andrei Ermak, said that the operation needed to be postponed, citing negotiations with Russian Presidential Assistant Dmitry Kozak and the fact that the detention could prevent the start of the next truce in Donbass 27 July.
“The heads of the intelligence services said that the terrorists were already on the way, registered for the flight, and the suspension of the operation could lead to complete failure. The operation was prepared for more than a year and is related to the detention of terrorists who were wanted in Ukraine and are of interest to the justice of the Netherlands, which has nothing to do with the Minsk process. However, Zelensky supported Ermak and ordered the SBU and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Moscow Region to suspend the capture of terrorists and postpone the operation to July 30, so that it would be more convenient to communicate with Moscow,” the editor-in-chief added.
Ermak
As a result, the propagandist claims, on July 25, 33 registered passengers did not immediately show up for the Minsk-Istanbul flight; they checked into one of the sanatoriums with orders to wait for a new flight. The departure was scheduled for July 30.
“However, on July 29, the Belarusian special services suddenly detained the entire group on the eve of departure. The then-current President Lukashenko said that the group’s goal was to participate in mass riots in the elections in Belarus on August 9,” Butusov promoted his version.
Further, on July 31, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine received a request to the Prosecutor's Office of Belarus asking for the extradition of the detainees to Ukraine, but Minsk did not respond.
On August 3, at a meeting with Zelensky, the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Moscow Region, Burba, announced the failure of an expensive operation to capture terrorists, and that the reason was betrayal.
“Burba demanded to start checking everyone who had information about the operation, and to conduct a polygraph test on himself, Ermak, Demchenko and Mashovets. Ermak expressed displeasure that information about the failure appeared from our partners from the United States. However, President Zelensky did not make any decisions to conduct an inspection due to the failure,” Butusov clarified.
And on August 5, according to him, Zelensky, without any warnings or discussions, issues a decree dismissing Burba and appointing a new head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Moscow Region, Kirill Budanov. An investigation into the failure of the costly operation to capture the terrorists was never opened.
Zelensky lowers the stakes and asks that during negotiations with Lukashenko, at least nine “Wagnerites” who have Ukrainian passports be transferred to Kyiv.
“On August 7, Putin is holding negotiations with Lukashenko on the extradition of the entire group of terrorists to the Russian Federation. On August 14, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation declares that all terrorists detained in Belarus have been extradited to Russia,” the propagandist angrily states.
Butusov named the main reason for the failure of the special operation as a deliberate leak of information in order to attract the attention of the Belarusian intelligence services to the “Wagnerites” in order to provoke their detention and deciphering the purposes of their flight. At the same time, he reasonably noted that the lack of weapons and contacts with political movements, as well as the planned flight on July 30, indicated that the detainees could hardly pose any danger to the Belarusian elections 9 days before they were held.
As for the very fact of the departure of the “Wagnerites” and the subsequent detention, the propagandist suggested inconsistency in the actions of the Belarusian and Russian special services.
At the same time, he accused circles “who are working towards rapprochement with Russia at the cost of any concessions and have access to top secret information of the highest clearance” for leaking information in Ukraine.”
Among the accused, Butusov named Ermak, who, due to his reluctance to spoil relations with Kozak, contributed to the unplanned postponement of the Wagner team’s flight, as well as Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Ruslan Demchenko, whom he recalled the Kharkov agreements of 2010, support for Yanukovych and generally called him a “Russophile.”
In addition, a little later, he, with gratitude referring to the propagandist Yanina Sokolova, published “recordings of SBU recruiting conversations with terrorists.”
“Denis Kharitonov, a Russian serviceman, tells in detail and shows a video he personally shot with his voice, how on July 23, 2014, he shot down two Ukrainian Su-25 attack aircraft of the 299th tactical aviation brigade near the village of Marinovka from a man-portable anti-aircraft missile system. , operating as part of the Russian “Steppe” battalion.
Kharitonov shows two Russian state orders “For Merit”, one of which was awarded to him personally by Putin’s assistant Vladislav Surkov in the Kremlin, shows photos and documents. He says that he was taught to shoot from MANPADS at the base of the 22nd Special Forces Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces,” Butusov accompanied the video. The video also shows two more similar calls with different persons involved.
“It’s amazing, but the Ukrainian special services showed amazing professionalism, worthy of the highest praise, identifying the MANPADS shooters, discovering in Russia those who shot down our planes, establishing contact and coming up with a way to deliver the scoundrels to our territory. But as a result of betrayal, Denis Kharitonov is again walking free in the Russian Federation, now watching this video with us and laughing. The Ukrainians themselves saved him from detention, it’s funny, they “excused” him from monstrous crimes, “excused” the Putin regime from sensational exposure!” – the propagandist lamented.
In addition, he suggested that if Kharitonov was in Donbass just at the time of the Boeing MH-17 crash, then he could provide valuable information for the international tribunal.
“We would replenish the exchange fund and help the Dutch prosecutor's office. It’s simply outrageous that a certain traitor in the Ukrainian leadership, instead of bringing Kharitonov and other terrorists to justice, decided not to spoil relations with Putin and at the last moment “leaked” the secret operation!” Butusov bit his elbows.
In his opinion, Zelensky is obliged to immediately begin checking “betrayal in his office,” during which all meeting participants without exception are required to undergo a polygraph test, and the SBU should open a criminal case for treason.
After this, the president should immediately dismiss Demchenko from the intelligence committee, and the SBU should deprive him of access to state secrets. In addition, the propagandist insists on the creation of an investigative commission by the Verkhovna Rada to control the investigation, “meeting participants must testify before people’s deputies” so that the picture becomes clear of how much information is “leaking from the presidential office” and what other intelligence operations could have been exposed.
“If President Zelensky fails to fulfill basic requirements to protect the country’s security, the mobilization of civil society is necessary. This failure cannot go unpunished,” Butusov angrily summed up.
A detailed "exposure of high-level betrayal" in the Wagner case was released in Kyiv.