Kyiv police report that its operatives, in coordination with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), have arrested a man and a woman accused of plotting to assassinate the first deputy minister of health.
“Law enforcement discovered that two residents of Kyiv Oblast, a 36-year-old man and a 29-year-old woman, were preparing to kill the first deputy minister of health. They had been tracking the victim’s schedule and movements for months, rented an apartment in the same complex, and constantly changed vehicles to avoid detection,” the police informed.
Additionally, the suspects had regularly visited shooting ranges to practice their shooting skills. However, their plan was carried out under close surveillance by law enforcement.
The individuals were detained under Article 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine while purchasing the firearm they intended to use for the assassination.
According to the SBU, “the suspects started looking for a weapons dealer on the black market, but were arrested at the moment they exchanged money for the gun.”
The Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office explained that the plot was triggered by the October 2024 death of a woman in a car accident at a Kyiv hospital, where the first deputy minister, an anesthesiologist, was on duty that day. Although the woman sustained severe injuries from the accident, her friends blamed the doctor for her death and sought revenge.
The suspects have been charged under Part 1 of Article 14 and Part 2, Clause 12 of Article 115 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code, which pertains to the preparation of a premeditated murder. The charges carry penalties of up to 15 years in prison or life imprisonment.
Investigators have requested that the suspects be held in custody without the possibility of bail.
The arrests were carried out by Kyiv police investigators and operatives in coordination with the SBU and under the procedural guidance of the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office.
According to the Ministry of Health, the first deputy minister of Health is Serhii Dubrov.
Earlier, the SBU neutralized the Federal Security Service spy network operating in Kyiv and Kharkiv oblasts. It was led by an engineer at the Kyiv Metro municipal enterprise.
In 2015, during a meeting in Moscow, the FSB recruited him and put him in “standby mode” until the start of the Russian all-out war against Ukraine, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine.
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