Zaluzhnyi has given his written consent to operation at Kanatove - Chervinskyi
Ex-intelligence officer and SSO colonel Roman Chervinskyi said that the then Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhnyi agreed to the operation to capture the Russian plane in July 2022, as a result of which the occupiers attacked the Kanatove airfield.
According to Censor.NET, he said this in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda.
According to Chervinskyi, the SSU gathered a certain amount of information in preparation for the operation, and when they decided that the pilot was indeed ready to arrive, they asked for their help to continue the operation.
"The SSU could not assess the aircraft on their own, create a corridor in the airspace, ensure flight safety and escort, and land it. So they turned to us to contact the Air Force. I reported to my superiors. The management reported to Zaluzhnyi. Zaluzhnyi gave his sanction. The first sanction was verbal, so that we could find out if it was possible to carry out such an operation," he explained.
After the sanction, Chervinskyi and his commander went to the commander of the Air Force to inform him of the SSU's plan.
"He listened, said he would give us the contact of the head of one of the territorial centres, so we went to the lower-level commander. He assigned us an employee who spoke to the Russian pilot about the technical issues of the flight, checked that he was using the right slang, and confirmed that he was indeed a pilot.
At this stage, we reported to Zaluzhnyi again that the Air Force had confirmed the pilot's identity and that even if it was a game (by the Russian Federation - Ed.), he would not be able to enter our territory in any way, because in the air corridor we would provide him, he would be shot down in any case.
The ex-intelligence officer noted that when Zaluzhnyi signed this sanction, he simultaneously wrote a letter to the SSU, asking them to send their employee to join the group and do his part of the work in order to carry out joint activities.
"This document remained, it is in the case file. The SSU did not show it for a long time, saying that it did not exist, that the employee had not been seconded, and so on. But this letter was eventually found," he added.
Chervinskyi also stated that Zaluzhnyi's letter was "hidden", and he was accused of arbitrarily deciding to send people to the Kanatove airfield under the guise of training. He also added that the investigation into the case is silencing the participation of the SSU officer in the organisation of the special operation.
The case of Roman Chervinskyi
The media reported that the Ukrainian military had been recruiting a Russian pilot for several months to hijack the plane. According to media reports, Roman Chervinsky was among them. Subsequently, as the SBU noted, the "operation" was carried out over the objections of the SBU and without the consent of the relevant state authorities. As a result, the enemy received information about the deployment of personnel of the Ukrainian Air Force and Ukrainian aircraft at the Kanatove airfield. This allowed the Russian Armed Forces to shell the airfield.
Later, Chervinsky gave Censor.NET an exclusive interview in which he spoke about the operation at Kanatove airfield.
In April 2023, the SBU served Chervinsky with a notice of suspicion in the case of the shelling of the Kanatove airfield in Kirovohrad region by the occupiers. He was detained in the Ternopil region.
Major General Viktor Hanushchak, who was in charge of the military unit to which Colonel Chervinsky was assigned as deputy commander, told Censor.NET that the operation at Kanatove airfield had been agreed with the top leadership of the Armed Forces. However, the court refused to hear Hanushchak and did not accept evidence in favour of Chervinsky.
Roman Chervinskyi was one of the intelligence officers who organised an operation in 2020 to detain Russian mercenaries from the Wagner PMC, luring them to Belarus. There, the mercenaries were supposed to board a plane that would later be crash-landed in Ukraine by the Ukrainian special services. However, the operation failed. On 24 June 2021, President Zelensky confirmed the preparation of a special operation against the Wagnerites. Zelenskyy also said that the special operation against the Wagnerites was the idea of other countries and that Ukraine was involved in this issue as much as possible.
In December 2021, intelligence officers from the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine Chervinskyi and Semeniuk spoke about the betrayal of the operation. According to Chervinskyi, several people from the President's Office could have leaked information about the operation to detain the Wagnerites. He also said that the Presidential Office threatened the ex-intelligence officers with criminal proceedings.
On 28 December 2023, Colonel Roman Chervinsky was served a notice of suspicion of attempting to seize USD 100,000 by impersonating an official of the State Fiscal Service.
On 17 July 2024, Chervinsky was released on bail, extending his detention until 4 August. On 18 July 2024, the Court placed Chervinsky under round-the-clock house arrest as part of a new criminal proceeding.
