The head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, has presented the initial findings of the investigation into the attempted assassination of MP candidate Volodymyr Borysenko to President Petro Poroshenko, the SBU press service reported on October 22.
On the orders of President Poroshenko, joint investigative teams of the Security Service of Ukraine and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) have been working on the case around the clock. They have established the circumstances of the assassination attempt, have conducted examinations, and have questioned witnesses.
According to the SBU press service, SBU agents have arrested and are questioning “M,” a 40-year-old citizen of the Russian Federation and a native of Kursk, who is suspected of being a hired gun tasked with carrying out the assassination of Borysenko, a candidate from the Popular Front party from the Boryspil raion (district) in the Kyiv Oblast.
On the basis of eyewitness testimony, the SBU and the MIA are establishing the identities of other participants in the assassination attempt.
As previously reported, on October 20, Volodymyr Borysenko, who is allied with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk, was a victim of a grenade attack and shooting near his home in Boryspil but escaped serious injury thanks to protective body armor. He was taken to a hospital, where he is being treated for shock. Police are looking into the possibility that the attack was tied to his candidacy in the forthcoming parliamentary elections.
MIA Advisor Anton Herashchenko provided additional details on the assassination attempt on his Facebook page:
“When (Borysenko) came out into the yard to feed his dog he was shot from a firearm and an explosive packet was thrown at his feet. His body armor, which Borysenko has been wearing recently after receiving threats (…), stopped the bullet,” he wrote. Apparently, the device exploded outside the door when Borysenko was in the house.
Later, Herashchenko specified that the explosive device was an RGD-5 grenade and the shots in the back came from a short-barrel gun using 9×18mm ammunition.
In an interview with TVi on October 21, Nalyvaichenko reported that this was the third assassination attempt on a deputy candidate using explosive devices.
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk has stated that the attempt on the life of Borysenko was directly tied to his political activity.
Photo: Volodymyr Borysenko, ispe.kiev.ua
