MOSCOW, August 16. /TASS/. UK intelligence service MI-6 has prepared a sabotage squad comprising 100 militants from Ukrainian nationalist groups for operations on the African soil, a military-diplomatic source has told TASS.

"According to information, confirmed by several sources, UK special service MI-6 has formed and prepared for deployment on the southern continent a sabotage and assassination squad, comprising members of Ukrainian nationalist and neo-Nazi groups, in an attempt to prevent cooperation between African countries and Russia," the source said.

According to the source, the Kiev government tasked the country’s national security service SBU, military intelligence service GUR and the Defense Ministry in July with helping MI-6 and SAS to select 100 militants from Ukrainian nationalist groups with vast combat experience "on the eastern front." The instructions were given on a request from London.

"The task of the Ukrainian squad, formed by the British special services, will be to carry out sabotage attacks at infrastructure facilities in Africa and to assassinate African leaders eyeing cooperation with Russia," the source said.

"Lt. Col. of GUR [Main Directorate of Intelligence] of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry V. Prashchuk was appointed to be the commander of the Ukrainian squad of cutthroats," the source added.

Vitaly Prashchuk was born in Ukraine’s Vinnitsa Region in 1980. He participated in hostilities in the Donetsk and Lugansk Region in 2014-2016 as a commander of a sabotage and reconnaissance squad.

In 2015, Prashchuk was enlisted to the 73rd Center of Maritime Operations and was a service member of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Directorate of Intelligence until 2017. He participated in joint operations of GUR and the UK intelligence in Zimbabwe.

Prashchuk retired from active duty in 2019. Later, he was elected a member of Ukraine’s parliament, Verkhovna Rada. When the Russian special operation in Ukraine began, he was a reserve officer of GUR.