Serbian militant Bratislav Živković, who was declared persona non grata by Bucharest, was — most likely — killed in fighting with Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk region of Russia.
This is reported by the Romanian broadcaster Digi24.
According to Serbian media, 42-year-old Zivkovic was killed on the night of January 2. He was allegedly the commander of an assault platoon of the Russian army. In 2017, he was declared persona non grata in Romania for 15 years by a decision of the Bucharest Court of Appeal.
Živković was the commander of the paramilitary organization Cetniciki Pokret. According to journalists, it is known for its nationalist-chauvinist views. The man came to Romania four times — from Bulgaria, then from Ukraine. He was detained in the city of Constanta when he was photographing military radars on the Black Sea coast and transmitting their GPS coordinates. The intelligence services believe that he was interested in the NATO military base "Mihail-Kogelniceanu".
According to media reports, Živković holds not only Serbian but also Russian citizenship. It is alleged that he participated in the fighting in eastern Ukraine as part of pro-Russian separatists since 2014.
"All actions of the Serbian citizen in Romania were of the nature of secret operations and had the specifics inherent in the activities of spies. The measures taken by the counterintelligence of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) prevented a data leak that could have affected national security," the Romanian Intelligence Service said.
At the same time, a statement from his deputy Zoran Andrejic was published on Živkovićʼs social media page. He said that Živkovićʼs death has not yet been confirmed, and called for refraining from spreading this information.
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