In Kharkiv, the murder of the head of the RMA and another official was prevented — a resident of Belgorod is suspected

A man accused of murdering a Ukrainian soldier and preparing an assassination attempt on two regional officials will go on trial in Kharkiv.

This was reported by the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutorʼs Office.

The person in the case is a native of the city of Yevpatoria in Crimea. According to law enforcement, he had many problems with the law and was repeatedly convicted, and after 2015 he moved to Belgorod, Russia.

According to the case materials, the man collaborated with the FSB to carry out sabotage in Ukraine. In February 2024, he arrived in Kharkiv, where Russian handlers gave him his first task — to kill a Ukrainian soldier. On the evening of March 5, the accused shot a soldier in the back near a high-rise building, and he died on the spot.

On the night of March 26, an alleged Russian agent threw an M67 hand-held fragmentation grenade towards the Shevchenkivskyi district administration. According to the expertʼs conclusions, he caused damage worth almost 2.5 million hryvnias. Then the suspect arrived at the inter-district specialized trauma unit of the MSEC in Kharkiv and attached an explosive device to the entrance door. After the detonation, he fled.

Another task was to assassinate the head of the Derhachiv city military administration (CMA) Vyacheslav Zadorenko. The suspect studied the officialʼs lifestyle and travel routes. In October 2024, having made a radio-controlled explosive device, the accused went to Derhachiv and planted the explosive under the body of Zadorenkoʼs car. The head of the CMA, seeing the device, contacted the police.

The possible attacker then planned to kill the head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration (RMA) Oleh Syniehubov. The man was supposed to blow up the vehicle of the head of the OVA for $50 000. However, realizing that Ukrainian law enforcement officers were already looking for him, the suspect postponed these plans. He also managed to set fire to two military vehicles in Kharkiv.

Law enforcement officers tracked the manʼs movements and in late October 2024, they caught him on a train as he tried to leave Kharkiv and lie down. He was remanded in custody without bail. The accused will be tried in the cityʼs Dzerzhynskyi District Court. The maximum sentence facing a possible agent is life imprisonment.

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