One saboteur has been neutralized and another one has been detained, it has been revealed.
"On September 21, Panchuk Valery Anatolyevich was detained in the Kherson region. He, in coordination with an employee of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine named Vitaly, was planning to blow up two high voltage power line towers supplying electricity to the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, as well as the Republic of Crimea," the source said.
The source added that "a second member of the sabotage group was identified in the town of Beryslav and was neutralized on September 19 while fighting back militarily."
"Ten kilograms of TNT were seized at the site, as well as maps showing objects of civilian infrastructure in Beryslav, on which the said person was planning to commit terrorist attacks, including at the time of the referendum," the source specified.
Video footage of the operation seen by Sputnik shows the neutralized saboteur hiding in a detached house and firing at Russian law enforcement from there. As a result, Russian officers had to use a grenade launcher.
Three improvised explosive devices, three bottles, presumably containing Molotov cocktails, a charred Kalashnikov assault rifle, RPG-22 and RPG-26 grenade launchers were seized in addition to TNT, the source said.
The neutralized saboteur arrived in Beryslav on September 12, according to the source. He had secured TNT from a cache organized by Panchuk and made improvised explosive devices to use against employees of the local administration, police, and the Russian national guard, as well as local residents who do not support the Kiev regime.
Panchuk, who was detained by security forces, told Sputnik that he had served in Ukraine's interior ministry. Shortly after the beginning of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, he was contacted by Vitaly, who introduced himself as a Ukrainian intelligence officer.
According to Panchuk, Vitaly ordered him to report the location of the Russian military personnel and equipment near plants in the city of Novaya Kakhovka, provided him with TNT, and ordered to blow up power lines near Novaya Kakhovka.
"I went this way, where the power line towers were leading across the lake to Crimea... I did not understand which towers, so I took a video and photos. I did not figure out which towers. As I was told, I was required to blow up some of these towers," Panchuk said.
He explained that he got afraid to blow up towers because he was not sure that he would be able to escape to a safe distance in time. So, he left the TNT in a cache for another saboteur, with whom he communicated by phone, but whose name he claimed he did not know.
Russian security forces provided Sputnik with a fragment of correspondence between the two saboteurs, in which they apparently discussed the process of planting and securing the TNT from the cache.
The law enforcement urged residents of the Kherson region to succumb to such provocations on the part of the Ukrainian special services, which demand that citizens carry out terrorist attacks on the liberated territories.