The Foreign Ministry stated that Ukraine’s spy agency – Security Service
of Ukraine (SBU) – had detained the Russian diplomat “as a result of a
successfully conducted counterintelligence operation on April 30…at the place
(where he was conducting) intelligence actions.” No further details were provided.
Russia’s naval attaché in Ukraine, according to the Russian embassy in Ukraine website,
is Kirill Koliuchkin. He is better known, according to Ukrainian online
intelligence forums and websites, as a
lieutenant-colonel in Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian
Armed Forces, or simply as a high-ranking military intelligence officer.
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No one responded to
phone calls placed with the main line or the media service number of the Russian
embassy by the Kyiv Post.
According to Ukrainian
military expert and blogger, Dmitry Tymchuk, Koliuchkin arrived in Ukraine on Feb. 20
as part of a Kremlin delegation that included Federal Security Service agents,
military personnel, including intelligence, border guards, as well as other
officials.
They were met at Kyiv’s
Boryspil Airport by SBU Major General V. V. Byk, according
to Tymchuk.
Their arrival coincided
with the bloodiest days of the EuroMaidan revolution during which dozens of
anti-government protesters were killed, most of whom from sniper fire, on Feb.
20-22.
Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached
at rachkevych@kyivpost.com.
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