The Ukrainian opposition demands investigation into the failed operation detailed by CNN

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The new calls follow an exclusive CNN investigation in which former senior Ukrainian military intelligence officials described attempts to lure suspected Russian war criminals to face trials for acts of violence committed in the east. of Ukraine, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting for years. .

CNN sources detailed and provided evidence that the Russians arrested in Belarus last year were the target of this elaborate sting of intelligence, with the knowledge and support of the United States, which officials Americans deny. But the Russians were never finally sent to Ukraine.

On Thursday, in the Ukrainian parliament, there was a brief fight and noisy scenes as opposition MPs held banners accusing government figures of being responsible for the failure of the operation.

One sign said “time to call the traitors of Ukraine” and another sign said “we demand truth.”

On Wednesday, an adviser to the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mikhail Podoliak, dismissed the CNN report, questioning the use of anonymous sources.

“As usual, mandatory anonymous retirees – and this is key – confirm something. Another anonymous source denies something. Again: anonymous, no last name, no charge and therefore sources that have no informative value and reputational. ” Podoliak told the Ukrainian state media Ukrinform.

Podoliak also noted on Wednesday a statement from Russia’s Federal Security Services (FSB) that the CNN report offered “new evidence” that Ukrainian secret services are interfering in Moscow’s internal affairs.

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“When before the FSB official appeared in the media almost instantly to support and praise a report? This is a signal to the entire Russian propaganda system, about what to do and how to work. Now” they will disperse “this story with reference to CNN,” Podoliak said.

But speaking in the Ukrainian parliament on Thursday, an opposition politician, Iryna Herashchenko of the European Solidarity Party, accused the presidential office of mistreating the situation by saying that “CNN spreads lies and deceptions and accuses them of cooperation with FSB “.

“Let me remind you,” Herashchenko added, “Zelensky was on the front line with this same CNN correspondent. Then it turns out that Zelensky brought FSB agents to the front line so they could film information about our military there. “Doesn’t it? It matches,” she said.

CNN’s Matthew Chance gained unprecedented access to Zelensky on the front lines of eastern Ukraine earlier this year, while Russia made a multitude of trips near the border region.

Herashchenko, who is herself a former journalist, accused Zelensky’s office of censoring CNN’s piece in Ukraine and urged Ukrainian journalists to take note of the story to “honor” the Ukrainian army, which she said he had been betrayed by the failure of the operation.

CNN’s Matthew Chance and Zahra Ullah reported in Moscow and Katharina Krebs in London.

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