MOSCOW. Sept 8 (Interfax) - The CNN report, according to which the CIA helped Ukraine organize the operation that led to the detention of 33 Russians in Belarus last year, is credible and impartial, a representative of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said.
"We fully confirm the information published by the CNN television channel. It is absolutely correct and demonstrates the CIA's role in a very objective manner, [...] so we believe that this information is credible," the FSB representative said.
In summer 2020, the Russian citizens "were practically lured to Belarus by the Main Intelligence Department and the Ukrainian Security Service under the guidance of the U.S. CIA," he said.
"The goal was well known, the republic's KGB was told that those people had come to join mass unrest on the opposition's side, which caused the known reaction of the Belarusian partners. Things were sorted out later on, despite the attempts taken by the Ukrainian side," the representative said.
"The episode with the so-called Wagner fighters, which we view as an obviously criminal offense, a premeditated abduction of Russian citizens from a third country's territory, and everything done by the Ukrainian security services cannot be described by us as anything other than acts of state terrorism, an instrument of which they are," he said.
CNN said on Wednesday, citing Ukrainian intelligence officers, that the CIA helped Ukraine organize the detention of 33 Russians in Belarus in 2020. In their words, the United States provided the Ukrainian side with cash, technical assistance, and CIA consultations in the course of the operation.
A high-ranking U.S. official told CNN that those allegations were false. He confirmed that the U.S. intelligence was aware of the situation but denied its involvement in the operation.
The official said that the allegations made by Ukrainian intelligence officers aimed to share, or even pass, blame on U.S. agencies for what was a high-risk Ukrainian operation that went wrong.
The Ukrainian intelligence officers told CNN they planned the operation to lure "suspected war criminals" out of Russia.
The Ukrainian agents impersonated employees of a private military company offering a $5,000 contract for the protection of Venezuelan oil sites.
According to the sources, hundreds of potential Russian recruits took the bait and the Ukrainian intelligence picked the men implicated in was crimes.
The sources, quoted by CNN, said two of the detained Russians witnessed the launch of a missile that allegedly downed flight MH17 on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in July 2014. Kyiv believes that another four men were responsible for the crash of a Ukrainian military plane, where 70 people died.