The Security Service of Ukraine detained an FSB hitman who tried to kill an official of the Melitopol City Council, the SBU reported on Tuesday, UNN reports.
SBU CI detained in hot pursuit an FSB agent who attempted to assassinate one of the officials of Melitopol City Council in Zaporizzhia. Following the instructions of the Russian secret service, the killer waited for the official in the entrance of a residential building and then struck him several times on the head with a hammer. Despite numerous injuries, the victim survived
For the sake of secrecy, according to the SBU, the offender acted under the guise of a utility worker who was carrying out maintenance work in the apartment building where the official lived.
After committing the crime, the SBU stated that the defendant was preparing to escape to the temporarily occupied part of Zaporizhzhia region through the EU. He planned to use one of the "schemes for fugitives" to cross the state border.
SBU officers reportedly detained him while he was trying to escape.
"The suspect was a repeat offender who lived in the temporarily occupied Melitopol," the statement said.
According to the SBU, "in June 2024, he was finally recruited and sent to special training courses at the FSB training center in the temporarily occupied part of the region.
"The killer arrived in Zaporizhzhia to carry out the enemy's task, posing as an IDP. After arriving in the city, he started tracking the addresses of his victim's work and residence, as well as the main routes of his movement. To "cover his tracks," the agent constantly changed the addresses of rented apartments and communicated with his Russian handler through fictitious nicknames in an anonymous messenger chat," the SBU said.
In the event of the murder of a Ukrainian official, the occupiers, according to the SBU, promised their accomplice to give him a house in Melitopol that belonged to local residents who were forced to leave because of the occupation.
SBU investigators served the detainee a notice of suspicion under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:
- ч. 2, Art. 111 (high treason committed under martial law);
- ч. 2, Art. 15, Art. 115 (attempted premeditated murder committed on a contract basis).
The offender is in custody. He faces life imprisonment with confiscation of property.