Ukraine’s SBU accuses Russian Volunteer Corps deputy commander Stepan Kaplunov of working for the FSB and plotting an Independence Day assassination. He says he was tortured into confessing.
Stepan Kaplunov, the deputy commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps, was in contact with Russian security services and was tasked with preparing an assassination attempt against one of the leaders of Russia’s opposition movement who planned to travel to Ukraine, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said.
The SBU said the attempt was planned for August 24, Ukraine’s Independence Day, and was foiled.
The SBU did not name the intended target, but sources cited by the Ukrainian outlets Suspilne (the country’s public broadcaster) and Babel identified him as Akhmed Zakayev, a former Chechen field commander.
In a video released by the SBU, Kaplunov says: “I was approached by an individual from the territory of the Russian Federation who was acting in the interests of the Federal Security Service (FSB) with the goal of recruiting me to take active steps to eliminate fighters of Ukraine’s Defense Forces and other individuals.”
The SBU also said it found messages between Kaplunov and an FSB representative on Kaplunov’s phone. Because Kaplunov admitted to the contacts and cooperated with the investigation, the agency said, he was not placed under any pretrial restrictions.
The Russian Volunteer Corps, meanwhile, published its own video of an official statement by Kaplunov. In it, he says he was “abducted in gangster fashion” by SBU officers on August 23 and subjected to “physical and psychological pressure.”
Kaplunov’s lawyer, Taras Borovsky, told the Ukrainian outlet Ukrainska Pravda that the confession video released by the SBU was filmed “in captivity, under pressure, through torture and death threats.” Borovsky said the agency released it now to “whitewash the SBU’s reputation” after its shootout the previous day with the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry (GUR).
SBU officers and GUR personnel exchanged gunfire in Kyiv on September 2. The SBU said its officers were carrying out “urgent investigative measures” when “a group of people” attacked them during a search and tried to obstruct the investigation. The investigation was connected to Kaplunov.
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