Special operation by SBU: valuable witness in MH17 crash case detained in Donbas

Smuggled across the border disguised as a paralyzed pensioner.

Probably for the first time in our country's entire history of independence, the Security Service of Ukraine carried out a brilliant special operation right on enemy territory.

Who is Vladimir Tsemakh? 

Vladimir Tsemakh is a former air defense chief in the city of Snizhne in the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People's Republic.”

In July 2014, he commanded the separatist air defense in the area from which the Malaysian Boeing flying flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down. 

He also fought alongside Igor Strelkov in the captured city of Sloviansk. 

An interview on YouTube can easily be found in which Vladimir Tsemakh boasted of how he took away and hid the “Buk” missile system from which MH17 was shot down.

How did the special operation proceed?

Two SBU agents moved into the same building where Vladimir Tsemakh lived, and when the man was alone in his apartment, they knocked him unconscious and wheeled him in a wheelchair, disguised as a paralyzed pensioner, through the “Marinka” checkpoint into territory controlled by Ukraine.

Tsemakh's lawyer confirmed the detention.

Roman Gontarev
lawyer

On June 28, Constitution Day in Ukraine, Vladimir Tsemakh was brought to Kyiv, and on June 29 the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv ordered his arrest for two months. He is being held in custody as a suspect. The date of the appeal has not yet been set.

Vladimir Tsemakh has been charged under Part 1 of Article 258-3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (“Creating a terrorist group or terrorist organization”), which carries a prison sentence of 8 to 15 years. 

Vladimir's wife, daughter, 2-year-old grandson Sasha and 7-year-old granddaughter Sofia are waiting for him at home.

Positions of the parties

Irina Tsemakh
wife of the suspect

Why was my husband kidnapped, a peaceful man with a bunch of ailments? Volodya had no air defense that could shoot down a Malaysian Boeing. 

Igor Strelkov
former defense minister of the self-proclaimed “DNR”

V. Tsemakh's attitude toward the downing of the “Boeing” is exactly the same as that of all the other militia commanders, that is, — none whatsoever.

Vladislav Shurygin
Russian military “expert”

Now they will drug him, start psychological pressure and, possibly, take him in front of cameras to recite some prepared text. I think they have already extracted a confession, because the gap between when he was taken and when they announced his arrest is three days. That period means he was worked on very intensively the whole time.

Yuri Butusov
founder and editor-in-chief of Censor.NET

The operation to abduct Tsemakh is indeed a major victory for Ukrainian special services, with enormous international significance. Girkin has said in interviews more than once that after leaving Sloviansk he went first to Donetsk and from there straight to Snizhne. Tsemakh's unit most likely attacked Ukrainian aircraft and helicopters together with Russian troops in July–August 2014. As a reward for its service, Tsemakh's unit was included in October 2014 in the 1st motorized rifle brigade of the Russian Armed Forces in Donbas, and Tsemakh himself received a “social elevator”: the rank of lieutenant colonel and the post of deputy brigade commander for air defense. 

Maria Tsemakh
daughter of the suspect

They will now try to pin the “Boeing” on him. But he has been listed as head of air defense only since October 2014, simply because he was the only such specialist. When the “Boeing” was shot down, he was not a key figure: an ordinary soldier who was just standing at a checkpoint. He went to fight, like all supporters of a peaceful life on our land”

Interesting facts

Eight days before the special operation, on June 19, 2019, at a press conference in Nieuwegein, the Netherlands the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) for the first time named four people who, according to its data, are responsible for the crash of the Malaysian Boeing 777.

• Sergey Dubinsky, retired GRU officer of the Russian Army
• Oleg Pulatov, reserve lieutenant colonel of the Russian Army Airborne Forces
• Leonid Kharchenko, citizen of Ukraine, commander of a GRU reconnaissance unit of the self-proclaimed “DNR”
• Igor Strelkov (Girkin), defense minister of the self-proclaimed “DNR”

Each of the above-mentioned individuals has been placed on international wanted lists, and the case is planned to be transferred to a Dutch court before the end of this year.