Former Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said that at the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups did operate in Kyiv. However, they did not break through the defence lines of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and were infiltrated in advance.
He said this in a commentary to Radio Liberty amid reports from journalists and members of the Kyiv defence that there were no Russian reconnaissance groups in the capital, and that all cases of their detection were "friendly fire".
"As for whether there were subversive reconnaissance groups in Kyiv... Yes, there were. I know this for sure as the Minister of Defence. And they were destroyed by our security and law enforcement forces. Unfortunately, there were tragic cases of friendly fire, as they say, and the National Guard was killed... The subversive groups were in Kyiv, they were infiltrated in advance. I was even told by restaurateurs how two days before, people did not pay in a restaurant and said: "It's okay, it's okay, it's because of..." and then switched to Russian: "in two days you will owe us everything". That's why Russians or their collaborators were in Kyiv, it's true," Reznikov said, answering the question of whether Oleh Tatarov, deputy head of the Presidential Office, could have "killed Chechens in Kyiv".
However, Reznikov could neither confirm nor deny the information that Tatarov personally took part in the defence of Kyiv.
Earlier, veteran Oleh Symoroz, a participant in the defence of Kyiv, stated that there were no Russian subversive reconnaissance groups in Kyiv. However, it is not known whether he meant only those that could theoretically break through the defences or those that could have been infiltrated in advance.
"This is no longer a secret. I don't want to talk about it, but unfortunately, in the first days of the full-scale invasion of Kyiv, the reports given by the Ukrainian authorities and many other public figures who said that Russian subversive groups were working in Kyiv and that subversives were being killed, unfortunately, turned out to be "friendly fire," Symoroz said.
Military observer Yuriy Butusov also spoke about this.
What preceded it
On 27 August, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at a press conference that Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Oleh Tatarov, along with SBU Chief Vasyl Malyuk, "killed Chechens in Kyiv" at the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion.
- Tatarov worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs under Viktor Yanukovych. In 2021, he became a defendant in a case involving the embezzlement of National Guard funds through a construction corporation's deal to provide the NGU with cheaper housing for the military. The main suspect is the former president of Ukrbud Corporation, Maksym Mykytas. Tatarov was suspected of bribery in 2017 when he worked for Ukrbud.
- Tatarov became involved in the case after Mykytas made a plea deal with the investigation and accused him of the crime.
- Several times, Tatarov could not be imposed a preventive measure, and on 30 December 2020, the prosecutor of the Prosecutor General's Office withdrew the request for a preventive measure against him from the High Anti-Corruption Court.
- After the start of the criminal proceedings, the Prosecutor General's Office stated that they had suspended Tatarov from his duties for the duration of the investigation, but did not fire him.
- In November, the SBU reported that after the change of the pre-trial investigation body, the case file was not actually transferred from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau to the SBU. In the spring of this year, SBU investigators twice appealed to the court to extend the pre-trial investigation in this case, but both appeals were rejected by the court.
- In November 2021, it became known that Tatarov had returned to cooperation with law enforcement agencies.