15:54 15.06.2019

SBU establishes conclusive evidence of destruction of Ukraine's Il-76 aircraft in 2014 by Wagner PMC under order of Kremlin

2 min read
SBU establishes conclusive evidence of destruction of Ukraine's Il-76 aircraft in 2014 by Wagner PMC under order of Kremlin

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has said that unofficial collaborators of the Russian military spy agency from the so-called Wagner PMC (Private Military Company) on June 14, 2014 destroyed Il-76 military transport aircraft landing on the airfield in Luhansk with Ukrainian military servicemen aboard under an order issued in Kremlin.

"The security service has conclusive evidence that the decision to shoot down [the Ukrainian military aircraft) was made in the Kremlin and executed by a unofficial collaborators unit of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, known as the Wagner private military company," the SBU said in a statement posted on Facebook social network page on Friday.

The press center said that investigators of the SBU established that the criminal order was given directly by the commander of the 58th Army of the Russian Armed Forces, Major General Yevgeny Nikiforov, detached to the Donbas to invade and occupy part of the sovereign country.

"Moreover, the perpetrators of the murder of Ukrainian soldiers - Dmitry Utkin [Wagner], Andrei Guralov and Andrei Lebedev, on returning to Russia were awarded by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin with official state decorations Orders of Courage," the SBU said.

Also, the SBU recalled that even during the briefing on October 7, 2017, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Hrytsak said that the investigators of the Security Service had issued a notice of suspicion to Utkin.

"Despite the fact that Russian war criminals are constantly staying in the territory of the aggressor country, or as part of the secret contingents of the land military intelligence units of the Russian Federation are staying in Syria and Africa, the Security Service is doing everything possible to bring them to justice," the SBU said.

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