“The mercenaries were important and stupid enough.” Grozev said that Bellingcat learned about the special operation of the Ukrainian special services on the Wagnerians

About this during the Mezhyhirya Festival conference told Bellingcat journalist Hristo Grozev, the conference was broadcast on Facebook.

He said that after the Belarusian authorities announced the arrest of 33 foreigners who were in a private military company, there was a period when the Ukrainian special services realized that the operation was not ideal, but hoped that it could still be completed.

“In my opinion, it was very naive to hope that [считающий себя президентом Беларуси Александр] Lukashenka will simply give up this “gold mine”. Because there must be some kind of exchange: if he gives something to Ukraine, he will lose all the support of the Kremlin. He used it only as a counter in the game, he could pretend that he was negotiating with Ukraine, but only in order to bargain with the Kremlin, “Grozev said.

According to the investigator, the data received by Bellingcat largely coincided with what was written by Ukrainian independent media and investigators.

“The story is this: there was an operation, it was officially approved. This is unambiguous: there was an operation where several services were involved. And there was a plan to capture these 33 mercenaries. On the one hand, they were important enough, and on the other, they were stupid enough to to sign contracts for work in a fake PMC founded by the Ukrainian special services. Then, for legal reasons or not, there was a postponement of the operation for several days. And we could not understand why there was this delay for four days. On the one hand, it may be really justified reason. Indeed, [в операции] several countries are involved, perhaps some – the United States or Turkey – decided to wind down the operation at the last moment. Perhaps there were some negotiations going on at the same time. Maybe some stupid, but not criminal idea: “Well [перенесем] for three days, what will happen? “But it may be true that someone did it on purpose, because, say, did not want to worsen relations with the Kremlin. And here, too, there may be a criminal [умысел], or maybe not. May be, [это] just a bad political idea, “Grozev said.

He added that investigators have not yet received an answer to the last question.

“And the government [Украины] does not explain it to us. But there is a fact that the operation took place. And this should be the main part of the documentary, which we are still shooting, “said Grozev.

According to the investigator, Bellingcat representatives interviewed several people from the Wagner group whom Belarus extradited to Russia, and they showed journalists their negotiations with fake recruiters.

“We have enough information to prove that such an operation took place. [Украины] they did not want to admit that such was the case, because then the entire accumulated volume of evidence could be used in the courts. And this can be very harmful, for example, the progress of MH17. Instead, the government decided to just keep quiet about it. And nobody uses it in court. The only thing that makes me feel sorry here is that even if the operation failed, there is still a success. Because it has been proven that the Russian special services are asleep, that they can be defeated, that the Ukrainian special services are competent enough, “Grozev emphasized.