Avakov made it clear: Sheremet’s killers were protected by the SBU
The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Arsen Avakov, made it clear on the talk show “Shuster Live” that the nationalists accused of blowing up the car of journalist Pavel Sheremet could be “protected” by the SBU.
Avakov said that in the first hours after the crime it was not clear whether the SBU or the Ministry of Internal Affairs would be entrusted with the investigation into Sheremet’s murder, so both law enforcement agencies collected recordings from cameras in the center of Kyiv.
Then, when the prosecutor’s office ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs to investigate the case, during the transfer of records the SBU “lost” data from four cameras installed in places important for the investigation. The SBU officers referred to the fact that they handed over the recordings, but they were allegedly lost by the police.
“These are good cameras, in good places, places we really need, good quality. They told us: “We gave them away earlier, it’s strange that you didn’t receive them. It’s strange, there was probably nothing there,” the minister said.
Avakov said this in response to the remark of journalists, who noted that the ATO participants would hardly have been able to prepare the assassination attempt so carefully and professionally. And the fact that they did not try to leave after committing the murder suggests that they had patrons.
“The most difficult crime. Who made the explosives? Who calculated the route? Who prepared the reconnaissance? Who covered for these people during the investigation? Where did the footage from the four CCTV cameras that the police couldn't access disappear to? ... This is a most complex technical crime,” Avakov said, adding that the criminals deliberately confused the investigation.
According to him, also at a certain stage during the investigation it became obvious that there were “leaks” to the militants, after which the progress of the case was kept as secret as possible.
The minister said that the case materials contain conversations between the suspects, “where they appeal to some of their patrons, who must pull them out and protect them.”
At the same time, Avakov emphasized that he cannot disclose all the data; the investigation continues: “I can tell the truth, but not the whole truth.”
It should be noted that previously the Ukrainian media published journalistic investigations into the murder of Sheremet. Reporters also managed to obtain data from some cameras that recorded cars near the scene of Sheremet’s murder, where SBU officers identified by the authors of the investigations were located.
In any case, the Ukrainian special service should have controlled the radicals who returned from the ATO.
On the air of Shuster's talk show, Avakov said that in the recordings of surveillance cameras in the center of Kiev, in addition to the militants already shown at the press conference of the Ministry of Internal Affairs who were planting a mine and filming the location of the cameras before the day of the explosion, there was also a girl who pressed the button, after which the explosives went off under Sheremet's car.
Avakov showed photographs of her, noting that the attacker was wearing glasses and a wig.
The minister also said that ex-ATO militant Andrei Antonenko, who is accused of planting an explosive device, before starting a search in the apartment (while investigators were waiting for the lawyer to arrive), managed not only to report on Facebook about the arrival of law enforcement officers, but also send an SMS to his relative with a request to pick him up "green thing"
He was able to get into the apartment before the search began and fulfill the request.
However, the correspondence was intercepted, and soon the police discovered that a relative had taken a disassembled mine from the apartment, in which a portion of TNT remained, equivalent to half the power of the bomb planted under Sheremet’s car.
Avakov emphasized that he does not insist that this particular mine was used for the murder - perhaps, according to the “tradition” of ATO participants, it was simply brought from the front as a “souvenir”.
“But our suspicions in this matter have only intensified,” the minister said.
He also recalled that in the United States, about 60% of participants in the Vietnam War subsequently had problems with law enforcement agencies.
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