KIEV: Ukraine on Friday charged a prisoner swap negotiator with plotting to assassinate president Petro Poroshenko and other top officials leading the four-year campaign against Russian-backed eastern insurgents.
A judge in Kiev said Volodymyr Ruban planned to use mortar fire and grenades to attack the presidential administration and parliament with the help of the rebel command. "I would like to report that the terror threat level facing Ukrainians was, in our view, the highest in the history of our independence," Ukrainian Security Service chief Vasyl Grytsak told Poroshenko in a televised meeting. Ruban was detained on Thursday with a haul of heavy ammunition in his vehicle while crossing the "grey zone" splitting the war zone from the rest of Ukraine.The 50-year-old Ukrainian national is known to have organised several prisoner exchanges between the two sides since clashes, which have claimed more than 10,000 lives, began in 2014. Ukrainian media had previously accused Ruban of harbouring pro-Russian sentiments and being supportive of the separatist cause. "Ruban is suspected of preparing armed attacks against senior government officials," the presiding judge in Kiev was quoted as saying by Interfax-Ukraine news agency. The judge said Ruban intended to use "mortar guns, grenade launchers, light weapons and explosive devices" to assault the government quarters in Kiev and officials´ homes.
03-10-2018, 08:53 PM
Ukraine negotiator charged over plot to kill president
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