Ukrainian intelligence arrests a pro-Russian group in the west of the country

The Security Service Ukraine (SBU) today arrested a group of pro-Russian separatists in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, in the south-west of the country, who intended to create “new people’s republics” in the style of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, in eastern Ukraine.

“Ukrainian law enforcement officers arrested the organizers of new ‘people’s republics’ in western Ukraine. The objective of the collaborationists was to destabilize the situation in the rear of the Ukrainian military “in the midst of the offensive of the Russian troops invading the country”reported the press service of the SBU.

The call “Federal Republic of Ukraine” that the pro-Russians sought to create should be made up of the Ivano-Frankivsk, Transkarpattia, Lviv, Ternopol and Chernivtsi regions, all in the western part of the country.

According to the SBU, the separatists hoped to recruit “more than half a thousand traitors in the western and central regions” from Ukraine.

According to the separatists’ plan, they would assassinate military officers and representatives of the authorities, after which they would seize power from local administrations and announce the proclamation of “people’s republics”, which would later be united into a puppet state controlled by Moscow.

Law enforcement officials opened a criminal case against the detainees for “actions aimed at a violent change of power and constitutional order”, a crime punishable by ten years in prison.

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