MOSCOW, September 8. /TASS/. The CNN report disclosing the circumstances of an attempt to kidnap Russians in Belarus in 2020 confirms that Ukraine's secret services, in fact, commit acts of state terrorism, a spokesman for Russia's federal security service FSB told the media on Wednesday.

"The [Ukrainian] authorities are not interested in an impartial investigation of this affair. Because if it is investigated properly, all the facts that were mentioned a year ago and which CNN has now confirmed serve as fresh evidence Ukraine commits acts of state terrorism by the hands of its secret services. This is an accusation at a level of an international criminal court. There is no getting away from this."

"The incident involving so-called 'Wagnerians', which we have considered as a punishable criminal offense from the outset, was a pre-planned abduction of Russian citizens from a third country. Everything that we can see on the side of the Ukrainian secret services can be described in no way other than international terrorism, of which they are tools," the FSB spokesman said.

He recalled that conflicting information had been coming from the Ukrainian side from the very beginning. First, Ukrainian journalists received confirmations of Ukraine's involvement in this operation and even interviewed its participants. Then the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's main intelligence directorate (GUR) said there had been no operation at all.

"Zelensky last year said there had been nothing. But this year he told a Ukrainian television broadcaster in an interview that Ukraine had been dragged into the affair. He did not mention who did that, though. This looks schizophrenic somewhat. May they make up their mind first," the FSB official said.

"We remember perfectly well what happened then: our citizens were in fact lured into Belarus by the GUR [main intelligence directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry] and the security service SBU under the guidance of the United States' CIA. The purpose was well-known, there was a leak to the Belarusian state security committee KGB to the effect those people had arrived for participation in massive unrest by the opposition. This explains why the Belarusian partners reacted the way they did. But in due time everything fell into place despite the attempts the Ukrainian side was making," the FSB spokesman said.