After the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, revealed that the fake murder of journalist and Kremlin critic Arkady Babchenko was a sting operation to capture a man planning a series of Kremlin-ordered murders, they claimed Babchenko was just the first one on the list of potential victims.
The SBU revealed on May 30 it obtained a list of 30 people in Ukraine allegedly targeted for assassination. The next day, the list was said to actually have 47 names.
Babchenko said it was the existence of this list and the threat to other people’s lives that persuaded him to cooperate with special services to fake his murder. He specified in a Facebook comment that the list was “a menu” from which the targets were to be chosen.
The SBU refused to publish the list, saying it would hinder the investigation. In recent days, however, part of the SBU’s list was leaked to the press as people revealed that the SBU contacted them.
“They are mainly well-known Ukrainian and ex-Russian journalists,” Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko wrote on Facebook on June 1. “Today they are being notified of the danger and receiving protection.”
Over a dozen journalists and bloggers were invited to SBU for a closed meeting on June 1. According to testimonies of some of them, they were told they were on the hit list the SBU obtained from the organizers of Babchenko’s murder attempt. They were offered to apply for state security. They also signed a non-disclosure agreement, although it isn’t clear if it banned them from talking about the meeting itself or the investigation.
Among those who confirmed they were on the alleged hit list are former Russian TV journalists now working in Ukraine, Yevgeny Kiselyov and Matvey Ganapolsky, TV host Tetiana Danylenko of ZIK TV, journalist Kateryna Sergatskova of Zaborona.com, blogger and political expert Olesya Yakhno-Belkovskaya, journalist Bogdan Butkevych of Espresso TV, journalist Ayder Muzhdabaev of ATR TV station, activist Oleksandra Dvoretska, media critic Otar Dovzhenko and children’s author Larysa Nitsoi.
Ukrainska Pravda, one of Ukraine’s biggest news websites, wrote on June 5 that their founding editor Olena Prytula had been on the list as well. The service didn’t hurry to inform her, though: Pravda wrote that after Prytula missed the SBU’s phone call on June 1. They reached out again three days later.
Some of the people on the “hit list” pointed out they weren’t offered any evidence it was real.
Journalist Sergatskova was called to the SBU as a witness in Babchenko’s case but said after the meeting she didn’t understand why she had a witness status.
“There were no questions on the case, there was no evidence that I was in danger,” Sergatskova said on Facebook. “They didn’t even show me the list.”
Ukrainian news website Strana.ua on June 5 published what it said was the full list of 47 targets leaked to them by a source in the SBU. The SBU didn’t confirm the list was genuine. Strana.ua has been the target of authorities’ attention several times: Its chief editor and founder Ihor Guzhva has fled Ukraine escaping an extortion investigation in February, while authorities searched Strana’s office back in 2017 reportedly investigating divulging of state secrets.
The leaked list includes some Ukrainian, Russian living in Ukraine, Crimean journalists, bloggers, and a few writers. Babchenko himself isn’t on it.
Danylenko, a journalist and popular TV presenter, condemned the publication of the list. She said she turned down the offer of state security, although she was concerned about the safety of her family.
“I have a million questions for the leaders of our security structures and to the leaders of the state. They have three things in their heads: money, elections and PR,” Danylenko said on Facebook.
Blogger and activist Denys Matsola, who also was on the leaked list, said the SBU had not contacted him.
“I think it’s a fake list put together in a hurry,” Matsola said. “It looks very much like the clumsy hand of the SBU.”
