One of the participants of the criminal group, which planned the creation of "people's republics" in the western regions of Ukraine on the instructions of the Russian Federation, began cooperating with the investigation and said that preparations for the overthrow of the constitutional order of Ukraine began in the summer of 2021, the SBU reports.

"The Kremlin planned to create "people's republics" in the western regions of Ukraine, but the SBU prevented this. One of the members of the group agreed to cooperate with the investigation," the SBU said on the Telegram channel on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian special services report that, based on the testimony of a member of the group, work on the overthrow of the constitutional order in Ukraine began in the summer of 2021. "A retired enemy intelligence officer who turned out to be the organizer of the "scheme" contacted him (a member of the group). He announced his intention to create a new democracy in Ukraine, and if the current government does not resign itself, the group will switch to a power scenario. To seize power, the group had to recruit 500 fighters, preferably from former NATO servicemen, and supply them with weapons," the SBU informs.

The report notes that the implementation of the plan was supposed to coincide with a full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, but thanks to the work of the SBU, the network was exposed, and its organizer and key persons were detained in early March in Ivano-Frankivsk and Khmelnytsky regions.

"One of the accomplices admitted his guilt and testified against the organizer," the Ukrainian special service clarifies.