Boris German, the man suspected of organizing the assassination of Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko in Kyiv, has said everything that took place was a result of his cooperation with Ukraine's counter intelligence agency.

"A longtime friend who lives in Moscow contacted me and told me that he works in the Putin foundation, which organizes unrest in Ukraine. I reported this to the head of Ukrainian counter intelligence because I think it's their job, and not the job of Ukraine's SBU Security Service, to address," German said in Kyiv's Shevchenkivsky District Court during a hearing on Thursday, May 31, 2018, to determine his pretrial confinement.

German said, "Counter intelligence authorized me to study connections, to study how money flows from Russia to Ukraine, to whom, to which political parties and officials, to which terrorist groups, to which regions of Ukraine, who is in charge of the finances, how weapons caches are created and what plans they have."

The suspect said he has no negative emotions about Babchenko and no grudges against Oleksiy Tsymbaliuk, who was supposed to be a "hitman."

"Tsymbaliuk was chosen for this mission by counter intelligence, because he is known for his work during the Anti-Terrorist Operation. He is a [former] priest and would never kill another person, especially an unarmed person. Everyone knew fully well that he would run to the SBU and tell everything. They taught everyone this on the frontline [in eastern Ukraine]," German said.

Ukraine's chief military prosecutor Ruslan Kravchenko, in turn, noted that information about the possible confidential cooperation of the suspect became known to prosecutors only during the court hearing. He said the information would be checked by pretrial investigators.

"But these statements contradict the evidence itself, which is chronicled in protocols for conducting clandestine investigatory surveillance, in which the suspect's intentions are clearly evident, as well as simple logic. For starters, the suspect does not know at all that the counter intelligence department is part of the SBU and not a separate agency," Kravchenko said.