Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko says he was involved in a special operation to avert terrorist attacks in Ukraine one month before his "killing."

"As far as I know, the preparations for that operation lasted two months. I was informed about it one month ago. That month, I saw how the guys worked, how hard they worked. [...] We stayed in contact throughout that month, we thought and took action. The result was this special operation," Babchenko said at a briefing at the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) headquarters in Kyiv on Wednesday.

He said that preparations for an attack had been made ahead of the UEFA Champions League final, which was held in Kyiv several days ago.

"In actual fact, other, apparently larger, more serious terrorist attacks, for which serious preparations were made, have been averted. Therefore, what they said in Russia a week ago that some kind of ISIL [banned in Russia] was preparing terrorist attacks before the Champions League was apparently supposed to be me," Babchenko said.

The fact that the organizers of the crime showed a photo of him found only in his Russian passport and in the passport office indicates that information was coming from Russian state services, he said.

Babchenko said he had no reason to decline the offer to participate in this special operation. "I agreed. We spent a month preparing this operation," the journalist said.