The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) accused Russian intelligence on Monday of being behind the assassination attempt on prominent Ukrainian blogger and nationalist activist Serhiy Sternenko, for which a 45-year-old woman was arrested, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
The assassination attempt on the Ukrainian blogger, who once headed the local branch of a right-wing organization but became better known in Ukraine for raising donations for military drones, was carried out on Thursday.
The SSU said in a statement on “Telegram“ that the woman, whose name was not disclosed, shot the blogger several times with a pistol, wounding him in the leg. The blogger himself said that his life was not in danger.
The lawyer for the woman accused of the attack told the court that she did not deny the evidence in the case.
Neither Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) nor Russia's military intelligence (GRU) were available for comment on the subject by Reuters.
The FSB did not specify which of several Russian intelligence services it believes was responsible for recruiting the woman, but indicated that the guarantor told her last year to move into an apartment in the apartment building occupied by Sternenko in Kiev and take a gun from a cache.
According to the FSB, the guarantor ordered the woman to kill Sternenko on the morning of May 1 in front of the apartment building where he lived.
Ukrainian intelligence published screenshots of correspondence between the woman and the guarantor, as well as a video recording from a security camera camera showing the moment of the assassination attempt.
The detainee's lawyer said that her guarantor told her that Sternenko worked for the FSB, Reuters reports.
The woman herself told the court that the guarantor, whose gender is not disclosed, introduced himself as an SSU agent, with whom she subsequently fell in love, the agency notes.