The detainee, held on Belarusian soil following an incident near Minsk that targeted a Russian A-50 airborne early warning aircraft, identified himself as Nikolai Shvets. He claimed to have acted on orders from the Security Service of Ukraine, entering Belarus from Russia. The related footage was released by BelTA via its Telegram channel.
“Shvets Nikolai Vladimirovich, born 1993, citizen of [redacted], I came here from Russia with a Ukrainian, Russian passport,” he stated. The man indicated that two drones were employed in a failed sabotage attempt at Machulishchi airport on February 26.
“I worked with the SBU, Kyiv,” the detainee added, referring to his alleged operational connections.
Mikhail Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told on social media that the assault on the Russian A-50 aircraft was carried out by what he described as local partisans based at the Belarusian airbase near Minsk. (BelTA report attribution).