Detention of “Wagner fighters” was planned as an “intelligence operation”; militants were to be detained in Turkey, MP says

The Temporary Investigative Commission has finally shared details of the failed special operation to capture “Wagner fighters.”

Servant of the People faction MP Maryana Bezuhla, as part of the investigation by the Temporary Investigative Commission of the Verkhovna Rada, shed light on the special operation to detain fighters of the Wagner PMC.

Bezuhla spoke about the status of the operation, how it was planned by the SBU and the HUR, and the alleged initiation of the special operation by Ukraine's fifth president, Petro Poroshenko.

Status: “special intelligence measure”

According to Bezuhla, there was no special operation against the “Wagner fighters”; within the ongoing work of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense (HUR MoD), a “special intelligence measure” was carried out. 

Thus, since 2014, documentation and collection of information has been carried out on individuals who, to one degree or another, are involved in Russia's aggression against Ukraine. 

Maryana Bezuhla
MP and head of the TIC

As part of this work, a new stage was opened in 2018: the study of private military companies participating in Russia's armed aggression in eastern Ukraine.

According to her, in order to study these companies and familiarize itself with their structure, functions and personnel, the HUR organized a survey of various individuals in 2018 to collect information.

The MP explained that during this documentation, a fake website was created through which HUR MoD officers conducted “interviews” to obtain information on how the PMCs operate and who takes part in them.

According to Bezuhla, hundreds of people were interviewed as part of this work. This “special intelligence measure” was completed on July 6, 2020.

How the idea of detaining the fighters arose

The head of the commission said that in July 2020 the SBU approached the HUR MoD, after which the idea arose to use the information obtained for certain active measures. 

That is how the plan to lure part of the fighters who had taken part in combat operations in eastern Ukraine on the side of the terrorist organizations “L/DNR” onto Ukrainian territory emerged.

In the course of this operation, the SBU was given information on several dozen people of operational interest. Of these, 33 people were later selected.

Bezuhla clarified that the scanned documents published by the media are materials of the SBU's pre-trial investigation, not intelligence materials.

No landing in Kyiv was planned

According to Bezuhla, there was no special operation involving the forced landing in Ukraine of a Turkish aircraft carrying Wagner PMC members; they were planned to be detained in Turkey.

Thus, the “operation” was supposed to take place on a Moscow–Istanbul flight, but due to coronavirus and other restrictions, the flight was replaced with Minsk– Istanbul.

At the same time, a forced landing in Kyiv was not envisaged. The plan was to bring these people to Turkey and detain them as part of an international legal operation. 

There was information that many of these 33 people had taken part in the war in Syria. More than 20 of them had taken part in the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Bezuhla also noted that this was not a joint special operation of Ukraine with international partners; it was a Ukrainian special measure. “These people were supposed to be detained in Istanbul, because such individuals appear in various databases and are therefore detained in every civilized country,” the MP said.

At the same time, the landing of the aircraft in Kyiv was envisaged only in an additional scenario, which was divided into two options: “someone felt unwell on the plane” or “forced landing.” “This was the so-called Plan G,” the MP emphasized.

Preliminary data indicate that this group included people who could have become witnesses in the case of the Malaysia Airlines passenger Boeing, flight MH17, shot down over Donbas.

Maryana Bezuhla
MP and head of the TIC

We have prepared information about these people, which may be made public, in the form of a table, and we intend to subsequently publish it along with the materials of the investigative commission that are not marked “top secret” or “secret.”

Poroshenko could not have initiated the operation

The head of the commission added that the fifth president, Petro Poroshenko, could not have initiated the operation, since it was already planned for July 2020.

Earlier, Poroshenko claimed that he had supposedly initiated the start of this special operation while still serving as President of Ukraine.

Details of the failure

Bezuhla said that the details of the intelligence operation became known to Russia already at the stage of collecting information on the fighters. 

Maryana Bezuhla

MP and head of the TIC

Events then developed in such a way that, in fact, there was an interaction, a counter-game between three intelligence services: Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. According to available data, no direct coordination on this issue between the Russian and Belarusian intelligence services was envisaged or took place.

In addition, according to Bezuhla, the group of 33 people included one agent and one informant of Belarusian intelligence services.

After Russia allowed these people to leave unhindered and Belarus also accepted them, the SBU and HUR drew conclusions and decided to postpone the operation somewhat.

In conclusion, Bezuhla listed the findings of the TIC, which partially mitigate responsibility for the failure at the highest level:

• the preparation of the special measure was imperfect;
• it had an adventurous character;
  
• it exposed Ukraine to certain risks;
  
• it could have discredited Ukraine's international partners.
  

Maryana Bezuhla
MP and head of the TIC

Our intelligence service lost in the struggle of three intelligence services — Russia, Belarus and Ukraine — but was not provoked into something worse. This did not lead to really tangible international consequences, let alone catastrophic ones, as we later saw in the situation with Protasevich.