MOSCOW, October 15. /TASS/. Vasily Prozorov, a former officer in Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) has told TASS that the SBU and the Ukrainian defense ministry’s main intelligence directorate (GUR) were behind terror attacks in Russia and that these attacks were greenlighted by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.

Earlier, law enforcement told TASS that Russian investigators had charged in absentia SBU chief Vasily Malyuk for organizing a terror attack on the Crimean Bridge linking the Crimean Peninsula with mainland Russia in the summer 2023. The man was arrested in absentia and put on the wanted list as part of other terrorism cases.

"Orders from the SBU chief regulate the service’s entire activities, including special operations. This means that the SBU chief puts his signature under the orders, endorses them. There is no way that Malyuk is unaware of the SBU’s high-profile acts, especially those committed outside Ukraine. He at least endorses the operational plans, signs the order sheets for resources. He knows about such operations. He reports on them to the country’s supreme leadership. Because, it is absolutely obvious that such actions, for instance, in Russia’s territory, cannot be organized without consent from Zelensky or his office head, as the SBU is controlled by them," Prozorov said.

That is why, in his words, any SBU operations in Russia’s territory must first get the okay from Malyuk, Zelensky, and Yermak. "So, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Malyuk is behind all the [SBU-sponsored] terror attacks, acts of sabotage, and murders in Russia, not only in its new territories," he stressed.

According to the former SBU officer, the SBU organizes much more of these kinds of operations than the GUR, although the latter "is far ahead in terms of hyping its activities." "The GUR often usurps what was done by the SBU. The most vivid example of this is the assassination of Ukrainian lawmaker Ilya Kiva. Several hours after his murder, GUR spokesman Andrey Yusov announced that this had been done by them. However, several days later, the SBU presented convincing evidence that it was them who did that," Prozorov noted.

He also said that the SBU and GUR have a long history of "explicit hatred." "I am working on a publication about this hatred, quite convincing, with details and facts. I will make it public soon," he added.