Security Service: Russia bankrolls artificial ethnic conflicts in Ukraine

"Ethnic conflicts are not typical of Ukraine. However, in the 21st century we face the problem of creating artificial conflicts, and, unfortunately, this is an external intervention of the Russian Federation. This has become a tactic and one of the separate directions of the hybrid war that has been going on in Ukraine for more than five years," Deputy Chief of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Viktor Kononenko said at the Kyiv Jewish Forum.

According to Kononenko, the goal is understood: to discredit Ukraine in the eyes of the world and to create artificial grounds for an open military invasion of Ukraine.

As the deputy chief noted, the SBU has faced the creation of artificial conflicts with the aim of forming new autonomies since 2014. In particular, there was an attempt to create the so-called Bessarabian autonomy, artificial stirring of the Hungarian conflict, attempts to create a separate territory in Zakarpattia region, and so on. There were also issues related to anti-Semitism, in particular, a group of people was detected in Cherkasy region that had committed nine crimes, including two against Jews, on request of the Russian Federation. The group was arrested and they gave evidence that the conflict had been bankrolled. Another group committed an anti-Semitic crime in Sumy. The criminals gave testimonies, saying they were paid $1,600.

"Russia is trying to present Ukraine as a country where fascism is reviving," Kononenko summed up.

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