The start of the operation against the 'Wagner men' was authorized by Minister Taran; there was no formal cancellation, it was simply sabotaged, - Butusov

The start of the operation against the 'Wagner men' was authorized by Minister Taran; there was no formal cancellation, it was simply sabotaged, - Butusov

Editor-in-chief of Censor.NET Yuriy Butusov said that he managed, through his own sources, to obtain the plan for the capture of the 'Wagner men' and to review it.

He said this to journalists after a meeting of the Temporary Investigative Commission of the Verkhovna Rada on the investigation of possible unlawful actions by representatives of state authorities, Censor.NET's correspondent reports.

Butusov noted that he verified these documents for authenticity and is confident they are original.

"I assert that this operational plan was prepared on 22 June 2020. 1 July, with the visa of the head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense, this plan was submitted to Defense Minister Andriy Taran. And he signed the plan to capture the Russian terrorists. Unfortunately, to this day the investigative commission has not given any assessment of these documents. According to the commission chair, it creates the impression that this was some separate initiative or a poorly prepared operation. In fact, no — this was not a separate initiative by someone from GUR of the Ministry of Defense, not even by Vasyl Burba. This is a document signed by the Minister of Defense of Ukraine that fully details the special operation plan," he said.

The journalist emphasized that it is important to establish why the start of the operation was formally documented and authorized by the minister’s signature, while its cancellation was not: "No one gave an order, no one signed. Instead, they created a collective mess in the president’s office by inviting many people who, by virtue of their official duties, had no need to know what was happening. Why was the Head of the President’s Office Andriy Yermak even there? How do his official duties provide for being informed about secret special service actions?".

Butusov believes the operation has turned from an intelligence operation into a counterintelligence one and now consists of searching for traitors who sabotaged the operation and harm our country's national security. For this, investigative actions should be conducted, which have not taken place for over a year.

Regarding the VSC chair's statement that Butusov provided false information, he said that this was not raised at today's Commission meeting.

"I testified and stated my position; I can explain each sentence in detail. I wrote an article on 28 August 2020 about this. Let's see who is lying in this situation. Why did the president say in August 2020: 'This is nonsense.' Why in September 2020 did Andriy Yermak on Shuster's program say that my words were fabricated. Now 14 months have passed. Everything I said is being investigated by the commission, and everything Yermak and Zelensky said turned out to be a lie, which the commission itself established."

"My position is that there should be a legal assessment. But today there is only a political assessment by the 'Servants of the People,' who in practice are acting as defense attorneys," he noted.

We provide the full transcript of Yuriy Butusov's words:

First. Of course, I was not asked any questions regarding a Russian trace. I immediately said that I believe this operation has now transformed from an intelligence one into a counterintelligence operation. And the goal of this operation is to find traitors who betrayed this operation and who create major problems for our country's national security. Therefore, of course I said that I am ready to accept any responsibility, but I ask the authorities to carry out elementary investigative actions, which have not been done for over a year.

First. There should be interrogations of all participants in the operation, everyone who had information. I do not exclude myself; if the investigation needs me, I am always ready. I gave testimony to the DBR on 29 September 2020. Since then, no investigative actions have been taken. Nothing is being conducted.

And, secondly, I said that it is necessary to question both the participants in the operation and those involved in its cancellation. That is, I emphasized several times that it is necessary to establish who invited six people at once to the meeting dedicated to the completely secret operation to capture Russian terrorists, thereby making it impossible to quickly determine the source of the information leak. In other words, responsibility was blurred.

Of course, if the investigation needs to work, I am ready to answer. If someone believes I am involved, I am open to testify. Unfortunately, the investigation does not ask me. I was called in for questioning only once.

But I want to say that everyone must be held accountable. Including the President of Ukraine. The President of Ukraine, who was at that meeting, the Head of the President’s Office Andriy Yermak, the head of the intelligence committee under the president of Ukraine Ruslan Demchenko. I said that I consider it a very great danger that people surround the president who, in my view, may pose a serious threat to national security.

Question: who are these people?

In my view, Andriy Yermak, Head of the President’s Office, and Ruslan Demchenko, head of the intelligence committee, are people who have official relations with the Russian Federation. They officially, by virtue of their positions, regularly communicate directly with the leadership of the Russian Federation, with the leadership of the Russian occupation forces in Donbas. Thus they already have a channel for transmitting information. They have a motive to betray our operation and prevent Ukrainians from capturing Russian terrorists. So, there is a motive.

Should this be checked? I believe there are grounds for checking. Within six months of 2020, immediately after Ruslan Demchenko's appointment as head of the intelligence committee, all the intelligence operations that GUR of the Ministry of Defense conducted on the territory of Russia and Belarus failed.

Is this a coincidence? Maybe someone thinks it's a coincidence? Then I want some official person to sign for this and say: this is a coincidence. I want some official person to say at the president's meeting: who gathered all of us in such numbers, this collective mess, which official did it. What is his name. Let the public know who is responsible.

Third. I believe law enforcement agencies, not just the investigative commission, should make decisions. Why are law enforcement agencies doing nothing? 14 months have passed since the case on the failure of the special operation and the information leak. Where are the decisions? There are no decisions.

I have new data that I would like to report and consider important. There are specific documents that I managed to review through my sources. I did not know whether these documents were valid, so I needed time to verify them. Now I understand there are grounds to consider them authentic, and I was able to check the content and the conformity of these documents with the facts.

What kind of documents are these, which I believe the investigative commission should evaluate? It is a special operation plan to capture Russian terrorists. I assert that this operational plan was prepared on 22 June 2020. 1 July 2020, with the visa of the head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense Vasyl Burba, this plan was submitted to the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Andriy Taran. And Andriy Taran sanctioned, signed the plan to capture Russian terrorists. Unfortunately, until now the investigative commission has given no assessment of these documents. From the comments of the commission chair, one could even get the impression that this was some initiative, poorly prepared, unverified information. A poorly prepared operation that who knows who could have passed on and anything could have happened — in fact no. This was not an initiative of an individual GUR employee, it was not even a personal matter of Vasyl Burba himself. I assert that there exists a document signed by the Minister of Defense of Ukraine that fully lays out the special operation plan and it was approved by the minister. I want to remind you that our minister is a career GUR general, and he took responsibility upon himself and sanctioned this secret operation.

I believe it is very important to establish why the operation plan to capture the terrorists was sanctioned and why there is a written order for it, while the postponement of the operation that led to the failure was somehow not documented in writing. For some reason no one issued an order, no one signed. Instead, they created a collective mess in the president's office. They invited a large number of people who, by virtue of their official duties, did not need to know what was happening. And why was the Head of the President’s Office Andriy Yermak there at all? Which of his official duties provides for being briefed on military actions and secret special service operations? Why did he know this? Who invited him? Why was Deputy Head of the President’s Office Roman Mashovets there, for example. Why was the secretary Mariya Levchenko there in the end? What possible relation could she have to discussing a secret operation to capture dangerous 28 terrorists?

I believe that each of these terrorists was very important for Ukraine. They had Russian state awards. They had fully documented criminal activity. They gave interviews. They fully revealed their criminal activities and what they did against Ukraine. Each of these individuals is much more important for the Russian Federation than the notorious terrorist Tsemakh, whom Ukrainian special services abducted from Donbas. After that, Putin immediately phoned and organized an exchange, gave up a large number… to free a large number of Ukrainians.

For these 28 terrorists one could have gotten much more. One could have conducted a large all-for-all exchange. All of this was failed. Now there is much discussion about why. But the fact is that someone made it so that the operation became known to the whole world, the President of Russia phoned Belarus, and as a result of a court decision the terrorists were quickly handed over to Russia. Now it is necessary to establish why this happened during a war. And who is responsible for such a failure.

I have given testimony. Of course, there can be no accusations of lying, but I did not lie. I expressed my position. It is reasoned. I can explain each step, each sentence in detail. I believe a year has passed. I 18 August of last year wrote an article. Let's see who is lying in this situation. I have not changed my testimony by a single word since 18 August. Let's see who is lying in this situation. Why did the President of Ukraine in August 2020 say, quote: 'This is nonsense. There was no special operation.' Why in September 2020, on 18 September, did the Head of the President’s Office Andriy Yermak, present at the operation, quote, say live on Shuster's program: 'This is a fabrication from the first to the last word — everything Butusov said.'"

Now it turns out 14 months later, everything I said is being investigated by the commission, I am giving testimony. The commission considers it important to get explanations from me. And everything Yermak and Zelensky said turned out to be lies, which the commission itself refuted. Ms. Maryana herself stated on 10 September that first, the special operation took place, that it was conducted by GUR of the Ministry of Defense and that indeed the goal was to capture 28 terrorists. There are some reasons why, unfortunately, this did not happen. So, my goal is to ensure there is a proper legal assessment, because there is no legal assessment. There are political assessments. There are subservient 'Servants of the People' deputies who come and tell us that in fact they are working like lawyers, that unfortunately not everything was understood correctly, someone did not say something correctly, someone said something incorrectly. Maybe someone said something wrong, but during wartime someone in the state must take responsibility, and that is the leadership of the country. And the leadership of the country is responsible for ensuring an investigation is conducted so that the prosecutor and investigator sign and say: we examined first, second, third, twentieth, all facts that exist. We conducted investigative actions, confrontations, seized documents, interrogated all participants: first, those who canceled the operation, meetings in President Zelensky's office; second, the participants in the special operation itself. We analyzed all facts, here is our decision — is there a criminal event or not, are there suspects or not. That is our goal. For this reason we all gathered here in the evening, because this must be done according to the law. Not because someone has some conviction, someone thinks something, a political position, a party card. The law provides for this. I have said many times. If this situation were an isolated unique case, we could simply discuss whether there was betrayal or not, maybe some inexperienced people, someone misunderstood something… In reality — no.

I want to say that there is a long chain of events. In 2020 the majority of GUR of the Ministry of Defense's special operations against the Russian Federation, which were conducted on the territory of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus, failed. Why did this happen?

I want to say that on 4 December 2020 we know from media reports that near the border of Russia and Ukraine in the Sumy region a Ukrainian citizen, Yevhen Holubiev, fell into an ambush and was shot dead. His body still remains in the Russian Federation; it has not been returned.

According to reports from Russian special services, Holubiev might allegedly have been involved in the abduction of another Wagner terrorist, Dmytro Kharitonov. We do not know what that was, how to interpret that information, what happened as a result. We know one thing: indeed a Ukrainian citizen with that surname and name died. He has a family, a wife. The body has not been returned. But for some reason there is some unclear event here as well. Possibly a failure, possibly not a failure. But someone informed. For some reason the person was killed near the state border and was captured by Russian special services. Why did that happen?

It seems to me that it is also necessary to find out why immediately after Demchenko's appointment as head of the intelligence committee, a sabotage group of Shved, also GUR of the Ministry of Defense, was detained by our Security Service and exposed. Why were three supply channels for klystron devices from the Russian Federation to Ukraine exposed? Who did this?

I believe that all this should be analyzed as one chain of events. All these failures are unclear, these unclear events, because all this may be connected and during wartime we must receive an assessment of all this. Someone did this. Someone may be behind it.

And the state must be held accountable for this and at least provide such explanations to itself.

I want to say that, unfortunately, after 14 months we hear about the case. The authorities constantly change their statements. At first there was nothing, then the president says: it happened, but it was not us. Now the investigative commission says: it happened, but we did not fail it.

One small step remains: if you did not fail it, then who did. Please, tell us. Even not to the people, but to the investigator under protocol, please tell how it all happened, who spoke to whom, how they canceled, how they made decisions. Tell all of that, and let the prosecutor and investigator sign. That will be enough for the future.

- Zelensky in Truskavets spoke about the conversation with Lukashenko. Is that a confession?

I believe this needs to be discussed because, unfortunately, you see, no one explains to the President of Ukraine the seriousness of his statements. There is a big problem in the President’s Office. In June 2021 and now in Truskavets the President of Ukraine for some reason twice forgot to report in two consecutive interviews the exact date he phoned Belarus. Why did he forget? One time he forgot to give the date, the second time he forgot to give the date. But that would have removed all questions.

I believe we should not humiliate the president. Maybe it's burdensome for him to come here to the commission; then let the commission come to him and ask. What is the problem?

They attend faction meetings with him and can ask him this question. Why do we not hear him? On what date did he call Lukashenko? Let him answer. Because he keeps forgetting this. We need to get an answer.