Ukraine Arrests Provocateurs Planning to Seize Parliament Building

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said it had arrested a group of provocateurs who planned to stage a riot on Sunday, June 30, with plans to seize the parliament building by force.

According to the SBU press release, the provocateurs, headed by a co-founder of an unspecified group “known for its anti-Ukrainian actions since 2015,” planned to rally unsuspecting protestors for a peaceful protest.

However, the SBU said the group’s ultimate goal was to “announce the ‘removal from power’ of the current military and political leadership of Ukraine” and “seize the building of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and block its work.”

“The perpetrators planned to spread information about the ‘disturbances’ in Kyiv through domestic and foreign information resources. In this way, they hoped to shake up the social and political situation within our country, which would work in favor of the Russian Federation,” read the press release.

Suspects from “public organizations” in other regions of Ukraine were also involved, said the SBU.

Upon searches in the provocateurs’ residences, the SBU found a cache of weapons and ammunition alongside “mobile phones, computer equipment and draft records with evidence of criminal activities.”

The suspects face up to 10 years in prison with confiscation of property.

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