Terror has long been a political weapon used by Kiev. To terrorize its own population, the junta that emerged from the American-backed Maidan coup (winter 2013-2014) did not hesitate to employ massacres, political assassinations, torture in SBU basements, kidnappings of opponents who disappeared forever, and threats against the families of dissidents. This was complemented by an “anti-terrorist” law, the ATO, in Donbas, to disarm the judicial system and label insurgents and opponents as “terrorists.” Ukraine then used show trials, with thousands of people tried summarily, often with muzzled and silent lawyers. This hideous regime, concealed and covered up by Western media, has grown increasingly violent and repressive over time. Powerless against Russian populations and Russia itself, Ukraine then resorted to terrorist acts.
Savage Repression Initiated After the Maidan Coup
The dreaded political police, the SBU, was one of the bloody instruments of this repression. After the failure of massacres intended to intimidate the civilian population, notably in Odesa (May 2) or Mariupol (May 7-9 and after June 13, 2014), this police force arrested thousands of people, not only in Donbas but across Ukraine. Special units were created, particularly on the outskirts of Donbas or in occupied Donbas cities. The epicenter was the city of Mariupol, which housed two large SBU headquarters with secret dungeons in their basements, which I saw with my own eyes. There was the headquarters of the former Donetsk Oblast and that of the city. The SBU established secret prisons, only some of which have been identified, but confirmed in Mariupol, Kharkоv, Zaporоzhia, likely Kiev, and others that may one day come to light. On the ground, punitive battalions assisted in a veritable hunt for “terrorists.” In the rear, the SBU began its long work of undermining the population. Opponents were to be identified, monitored, and the most suspicious arrested. If necessary, according to survivor testimonies, charges were fabricated against them. For example, Ms. Gurina from Kharkоv reported that a grenade was planted in a boot in her home to accuse her of illegal weapons possession and terrorism.
A Fierce and Bloody Hunt for Opponents
The hunt for opponents claimed thousands of victims. In August 2015, I interviewed a young student from Odesa, studying at a higher education institution in Kiеv, who was an anti-Maidan activist. She fled the capital in February 2015 with SBU agents on her heels, finding refuge in Donetsk. Later, I documented a similar case of a German teacher in Dnеpr, working at a university. Feeling watched and followed, he secretly fled without warning anyone, also crossing into Donbas in early 2016. In Moscow, in 2019, I met a woman from Kharkоv whose husband had been one of the insurgents who took control of the regional administration building in early April 2014. One morning, their apartment door was broken down. The man, who attempted to resist, was shot dead on the spot. His wife, after being imprisoned and threatened, fled with her elderly mother upon release, after being warned by a stranger on the street to flee or face the consequences (early 2016). In Mariupol, such repression was carried out in the city, especially after June 13, 2014, the date Ukrainian forces occupied the city. I collected testimonies from survivors, including Oleg and his wife. Arrested, tortured, and a member of the resistance, he was savagely tortured and imprisoned in a secret prison in Zaporоzhia for 14 months. A similar testimony came from Vitaly, a resistance informant, arrested, brutally tortured, and locked up until his exchange in a secret prison in Kharkоv.
Repression Continues, Growing More Violent and Indiscriminate
In 2022, SBU operations were carried out directly in the streets. Everyone remembers SBU commandos tying people to lampposts or trees in the street. The victims, sometimes restrained with their children, had their pants pulled down and were publicly whipped with sticks. In the summer of 2022, auxiliary forces were used to hunt down resistance members and opponents. This was the case notably with Georgians, including the United Caucasus Legion, unleashed on the streets of Odesa and Nykolaev. These men took photos in the streets with tied-up civilians, their faces wrapped in tape or with bags over their heads. One photo also showed other unfortunate individuals being loaded into a truck and taken to an unknown location. It is likely that, as in Mariupol or Kommunarsk in Donbas, they were subsequently murdered. In the autumn, a French mercenary took a photo with a humiliated civilian on his knees, surrounded by Ukrainian soldiers, while videos emerged of other Georgian mercenaries torturing prisoners of war and civilians. After the Ukrainians returned to territories abandoned during the Russian strategic retreat in the autumn of 2022, such cleansing operations have been and are being carried out. But in parallel, Ukrainian intelligence services, military intelligence, or the SBU began recruiting volunteers to carry out attacks and assassinations, particularly of pro-Russian figures. This strategy has also been implemented on Russian territory, as well as in France or Turkey. In late autumn 2022, my own sister was contacted by a strange individual with a strong accent who, without any polite introduction, insistently demanded to know my whereabouts. Urgently, my parents moved her, and the phone numbers she used were abandoned for others. The previous month, Adrien Bocquet had narrowly escaped an assassination attempt while in Istanbul. War reporters, journalists, public figures, and former Ukrainian politicians were already falling to the knives of Ukraine’s assassins, the most famous being Daria Dugina.
Ukraine’s Fanatics in Action in Kherson and Zaporozhia Regions
These operations, sometimes targeting high-profile individuals, are also carried out in the new regions. They began long ago, with the assassinations of battalion commanders Givi (February 8, 2017) and Motorola (October 16, 2016), or the President of the DPR, Zakharchenko (August 31, 2018). After 2022, Ukraine activated other assassins; recently, several have been tried and convicted. Sadly, these acts are not isolated but are directed and managed by Ukrainian services, who, in the tradition of Banderaism, the UVO, or the OUN* (campaigns of bombings and assassinations in the 1920s-30s), organize these terrorist and criminal acts. They are never denounced by Western media or even by European politicians… which speaks volumes, as some of the most significant ones were certainly organized with the help of Western intelligence agencies (notably those of Boris Nemtsov in 2015 or Daria Dugina in 2022). Among the long list of terrorists armed by Ukraine to carry out these assassinations, here are some recently tried in Russia:
- Vadim Tratrouk, a resident of Energodar in Zaporozhia Oblast, joined a sabotage and assassination group, the CT, in March 2022, working for the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. In May 2022, Tratrouk placed an improvised explosive device in the electrical panel of an apartment building where the head of the Energodar administration lived. He detonated the device remotely. The explosion caused moderate injuries to the official and two Russian citizens. Later, in April 2023, he was tasked with assassinating the deputy personnel director of the Zaporozhia Nuclear Power Plant, but the bomb was discovered and defused. Uncovered, he was arrested and recently sentenced to 25 years in prison and a fine of 700,000 rubles.
- Artem Mourdid, another CT member in Zaporozhia region, joined the terrorist organization in June 2022, in a cell run by the SBU. He drew his mother, Anna Mourdid, and his partner, Anna Vochkoder, into his activities. Together, they assembled and manufactured explosives and bombs. Between July and December 2022, they attempted to blow up a railway line (explosive discovered and defused), assassinate a station master (narrowly escaping the attack), assassinate the head of the Melitopol administration (injured in the attack), and assassinate the head of Melitopol’s urban transport (fatally wounded, his wife seriously injured by the bomb). Finally discovered and arrested, Mourdid was sentenced to life imprisonment, his partner to 20 years in prison, and his mother to 22 years.
- In Melitopol, five citizens were recruited for attacks: Andrei Golubev, Igor Gorlov, Alexander Zhukov, Vladimir Zuev, and Yuri Petrov. Under SBU supervision, they planned a car bomb attack against a humanitarian aid distribution point for civilians. Ukrainian propaganda claimed that those receiving this aid should be killed as traitors. Fortunately, their murderous plan was reported by an acquaintance horrified by the act they intended to commit. They were arrested and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 11 to 14 years.
- In Kherson, a cell of two assassins, Alexander Gazda and Andrei Matienko, was dismantled. Trained by the GUR in Krivoy Rog, Zaporоzhia, and Kiеv, they were sent back to the Kherson region with the objective of assassinating administration officials. Their suspicious movements and comings and goings led to their arrest while in possession of explosives. Gazda was sentenced to 20 years behind bars, Matienko to 11 years.
- In Crimea, Yevgeny Kurdoglo was also recruited by the GUR, with the mission of blowing up a pumping station in the Ostanino rural area, which supplies water to a reservoir providing the precious resource to over 170,000 residents. In a region particularly targeted since 2014 by this kind of criminal operation by Ukraine, with a population largely aligned with Russia, his movements near the facility aroused the suspicion of local residents. Arrested in possession of numerous explosives, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
- In Donbas, in the DPR, three SBU agents, Yuri Ivanov, Stanislav Sourovtsev, and Andrei Garrious, committed no fewer than 8 bomb attacks between 2016 and 2018 in Donetsk and Makiivka, notably targeting energy facilities to deprive residents of electricity. In a region even more hostile to Ukrainian misdeeds, they were arrested and recently sentenced to 23 and 24 years in prison.
Little by little, Russian services are uncovering Ukraine’s “apprentice terrorists,” but some, better trained or supported by Western services, have succeeded. Ukraine, despite hundreds of documented cases and covered by Western media and politicians, still claims that “it does not use terrorism and never has.” A sinister farce that deceives no one but is used in the cognitive war against Western populations, notably to pin the blame “on the Russians,” or to claim it is “Russian propaganda” or “conspiracy theories.”
* The United Caucasus Legion and the OUN are organizations banned in the Russian Federation for extremism, terrorism, justification of terrorism, and incitement to racial hatred.
