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LPR counterintelligence detains suspect of terror attacks plotted before referendum

The detainee confessed that he agreed to assassinate the head of the Belovodsky district and Goncharov showed him where the weapons were located and where he was to wait for the official

LUGANSK, November 18. /TASS/. Counterintelligence of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) apprehended a suspect in the terrorist attacks planned in the republic before the referendum on accession to Russia and established their architect, a source in the republic's security services told TASS on Friday.

According to him, the security services in Lugansk prevented a number of terror attacks that the Kiev regime planned to stage before the vote. "Ukrainian intelligence planned to kill a high-ranking regional official as well as four heads of the republic’s cities and districts. As a result of active search measures taken by the counterintelligence staff, the executor was detained - an agent of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Vladislav Romensky and the mastermind of the operation was established, a Ukrainian intelligence officer Kirill Goncharov," he said.

The source said that ahead of the referendum, Ukrainian intelligence made an attempt on the life of the Belovodsky district mayor and plotted to murder another three people. "After the assassination attempt on the head of the LPR’s Belovodsky district, according to the SBU’s plan, the agent was supposed to eliminate three more high-ranking officials. Romensky was detained while accessing a cache with supplies for the attacks and later he confessed," the source explained.

"The working materials of one of the SBU’s units plotting to undermine the referendum, in addition to detaining [Romensky] helped uncover an extensive network of agents of the Ukrainian special services," he noted.

According to the detainee, in 2021 he was recruited by Goncharov. "In 2022, he started proposing that I collaborate. And he said that if I refuse then my family and I would regret it," Romensky said in a video recording of his questioning made available to TASS by a member of the LPR’s security forces.

The detainee confessed that he agreed to assassinate the head of the Belovodsky district and Goncharov showed him where the weapons were located and where he was to wait for the official. "About a week following the attempt, Goncharov paid me and gave me a new assignment - to attempt to murder the heads of Melovoye, Markovka and Starobelsk in order to undermine the holding of the referendum," Romensky said.