Ukrainian officer says Azov fighters prepared terrorist attacks in Lviv

Members of Ukraine's Azov* nationalist battalion (banned in Russia) planned to arrange a series of terrorist attacks in the city of Lviv in western Ukraine, an officer of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), who voluntarily surrendered to the Russian Armed Forces said. 

Russia's Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov told reporters that the SBU officer, who surrendered to Russia, served at the main department of the SBU for the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

He personally took part in the preparation of sabotage groups that were supposed to organize terrorist attacks in the territories liberated from nationalists. The officer provided detailed information to the Russian side about those whom the SBU had hired to carry out those tasks, Konashenkov said. 

In particular, the surrendered Ukrainian officer indicated that the Ukrainian military from the Azov* nationalist battalion (banned in Russia) were intended to target employees and facilities of Western diplomatic missions in Lviv. US diplomats were also supposed to fall victims to those attacks. 

The authorities in Kiev knew about the nationalists' plans, but did not try to stop them.

On March 19, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said that the Russian troops recaptured another well-fortified base belonging to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Civilians, including children, were released from the base, Kadyrov said. 

*terrorist organization, banned in Russia