Editor’s note: Quotes from the police briefing have been edited for better readability and length. 

UKRAINE, KHARKIV, Apr 9 — The man who allegedly killed a Ukrainian soldier and wanted to kill the Kharkiv Oblast governor, Oleh Syniehubov, and the head of the Derhachi military administration, Viacheslav Zadorenko, will face trial, reported the Prosecutor General’s Office on April 8. Investigation says Kharkiv police arrested the man and prevented the attempt. 

According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the man was born in Yevpatoriia in Crimea and, after moving to Russia’s Belgorod in 2015, started to work with FSB. In February 2024, the SBU says, he came to Kharkiv to fulfill Russian assignments.

Prosecutors report, “The man’s first task from Russian curators was to kill a Ukrainian soldier. On March 5, 2024, the accused shot the victim in the back near one of Kharkiv’s high-rise buildings. The soldier died immediately.” 

On October 18, according to the investigation, the man placed the bomb under Viacheslav Zadorenko’s car.

“Zadorenko noticed a strange object under his car that looked like a brick with wires sticking (out of it) and called the police. The investigation group and explosive experts came. They detected a rectangular object with an explosive substance inside. It was hexogen or C4, which is used for bombs,” said Serhii Bolvinov, the head of investigations in the Kharkiv regional police, during a briefing related to the case on April 8.

The man’s next assignment, according to the prosecutors, was to kill the Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov, but he stopped his preparations because Ukrainian police were already searching for him. 

“Russian special services announced a reward of $50,000 for the governor’s death,” the Prosecutor General’s Office wrote. 

Bolvinov says that Syniehubov was to be assassinated while working at the hit site of a Russian bomb or missile strike, which had to be near a residential building “to cause a high number of civilian victims.”

The man was detained in October 2024. He is suspected of murder, attempted murder, diversions, and more. Currently, he is in custody without the right to bail. If proven guilty by the court, he could face life imprisonment.

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