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10 arrested over Russian plot to kill top Ukrainian officials
Moscow promised to pay the assassins up to US$100,000, depending on the notoriety and influence of the potential victim, prosecutor says
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Kyiv said on Friday that 10 people were arrested in Ukraine and Moldova on suspicion of planning to assassinate senior Ukrainian political figures on Moscow’s orders, with payouts of up to US$100,000.
Kyiv has previously accused Russia, which invaded Ukraine four years ago, of plotting to kill several senior officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky and the head of Ukraine’s intelligence service.
“As part of the work of a joint investigative team of Ukrainian and Moldovan law enforcement officers, an organised group has been exposed that was preparing contract killings of well-known Ukrainian citizens and foreigners,” Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko said in a statement.
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Kravchenko said law enforcement had carried out 20 searches across the country and confiscated money, weapons, explosives and communications with Russian handlers.
Seven people were arrested in Ukraine during the raids and three more – including the organiser of the campaign – were apprehended in Moldova, the statement said.
Moldova confirmed the joint investigation in an earlier statement into a plot aiming at the “physical liquidation of several public figures in Ukraine”. There was no immediate comment from Moscow on the claims.
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