Poroshenko orders SBU chief to take under his personal control case of Prisoner Release Center head Ruban
Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko has ordered Chief of Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Hrytsak to take under his personal control the case of Volodymyr Ruban, head of the Ukrainian Prisoner Release Center "Officer Corps".
"I am asking General Hrytsak to take under his personal control, I do not even ask, but order General Hrytsak to take under his personal control the investigation of this case," the head of state said at a meeting with the Security Service chief in Kyiv on Friday.
The president noted that they were talking not about a simple act of illegal transfer of weapons, but that they will receive "irrefutable evidence of large-scale terrorist acts, which were being prepared in Ukraine and the network used for this."
Poroshenko instructed law-enforcers to investigate this case in the shortest possible time.
"There was a single goal – to destabilize the society through large-scale terrorist attacks, and the evidence of this, at least this is what the head of the Security Service of Ukraine told me, is irrefutable, since we are talking about the stability of the state, about the protection of security in the Ukrainian capital," the president said.
He noted that the available information confirms the correctness of the actions of the special services.
As reported, on March 8, Head of the Prisoner Release Center Ruban was detained at the check-point in Donbas with an arsenal of weapons. He was bringing these weapons from the occupied territory to the government-controlled part of Donbas.
According to the text of the suspicion note, Ruban is suspected of preparing armed attacks on the highest state officials, preparing a terrorist act with the use of weapons and explosions that could pose a threat to life and health of people.
In addition, according to the note, Ruban planned "to use mortars, grenade launchers, small arms and explosive devices to carry out an armed attack on the residences of statesmen, political leaders, in particular: Petro Poroshenko, Arsen Avakov, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Oleksandr Turchynov and others with the purpose of their murder. "
According to the note, Ruban decided to commit a terrorist act to assassinate the president of Ukraine and other top officials, as well as a large number of people in Kyiv to create a "state of chaos, destabilize the internal situation in the state, paint Ukraine to the world community as a state where there is virtually no government power; create conditions under which the forces involved in conducting the anti-terrorist operation will be moved from the Ukraine's east to Kyiv, which "will enable Russia to launch a full-scale offensive and introduce into the territory of Ukraine under the guise of armed 'peacekeeping forces' units of the Russian Armed Forces and illegal armed formations of terrorist organizations "DPR" and "LPR", to continue the military occupation of Ukraine. "
Ruban is suspected of committing crimes under part 1 of Article 14, part 3 of Article 258 (preparation of a terrorist attack), part 1 of Article 263 (carrying, possession, acquisition, manufacturing, repair, transfer or sale of firearms, except hunting weapons), ammunition, explosives or explosive devices without statutory permission) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.