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Kiev confirms Yevgeny Panov detained in Crimea is Ukrainian citizen

Panov was detained on suspicion of preparing and attempting terrorist attacks in Crimea

KIEV, August 11. /TASS/. Yevgeny Panov detained on suspicion of organizing terrorist attacks in Crimea is a Ukrainian national, a spokesman for Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service, Oleg Slobodyan, told a news conference on Thursday.

"Panov is a Ukrainian citizen," he said commenting on his detention.

Slobodyan added that the Ukrainian side is verifying other information on Panov, but cannot provide it at the moment. "We are verifying this information," he said. "According to the law on personal data protection, we can only hand it over to the law enforcement agencies as part of criminal cases."

He declined to specify whether or not Panov officially crossed the border between Ukraine and Crimea. "As I said earlier, we cannot comment on this issue," he told TASS.

TASS earlier reported that Ukrainian and Russian citizens who provided assistance in plotting terrorist attacks had been detained in Crimea. According to the FSB, one of the organizers of the planned terrorist attacks was Yevgeny Panov, a resident of Ukraine’s Zaporozhye region born in 1977, an employee of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s main intelligence directorate who was detained as well and is giving a confession.

Simferopol’s Kiev District Court is to choose a preventive measure for Panov on Thursday. The FSB seeks his remand in custody.

The Russian Federal Security Service reported on Wednesday that it had spotted and detained a group of Ukrainian saboteurs overnight to August 7 near the city of Armyansk (Crimea) and that it had prevented terrorist attacks in Crimea prepared by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s main intelligence directorate. Their planned targets were critically important infrastructure and life support facilities. Twenty improvised explosive devices containing more than 40 kilograms of TNT equivalent, ammunition, fuses, antipersonnel and magnetic bombs, grenades and the Ukrainian armed forces’ standard special weapons were found at the scene, the FSB said.