Ukraine: New Terrorism Hotbed?
American Mercenary and Ukrainians Arrested in India on Terrorism Charges
An American and six Ukrainians have been arrested on terrorism charges. Sometime back I wrote an article in which I noted the greater risk of terrorism generated by Ukrainians would come to Europe and in fact had already arrived on a small scale (https://gordonhahn.com/2015/11/05/europes-new-terrorist-threat/). This was confirmed by prior and later events.
The first case of Ukrainian neo-fascist international terrorist plot was developing already before the February 2014 Maidan revolt that overthrew the democratically elected president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, with Western backing. It involved a Ukrainian planning to attack the Russian embassy is unfolding in London. The London plot involved 33-year-old Ukrainian-born, likely Argentinian national Vadim Bezkorovainiy, who, according to London prosecutor Robin Sellers, wanted to join the Ukrainian army in order to legalize Ukrainian residency and was undertaking “premeditated and concrete steps in preparation of terrorist act.” He began to search information on explosives in January 2014—that is, before Yanukovych’s overthrow. Bezkorovainiy was arrested initially in March 2014 for using false documents and living in the UK under a false name. A search of his home uncovered items indicating preparation of a terrorist attack. For years, Bezkorovainiy, who at times told police he is a Ukrainian citizen, moved around Europe using said documents, and in 2012 he was detained for using a Polish passport and was deported to Kiev. His Polish wife, with whom he has lived for many years and had children, did not know his real identity. Bezkorovainiy told London investigators that “military action will be turned back onto the territory of Russia” and Russian “military actions in Crimea will not go unpunished.” Bezkorovainiy’s computer held photographs and reconnaissance videos of the Russian embassy, and his Internet activity indicated an interest in acquiring explosives and and the making of detonators. He was radicalized while staying in Ukraine when it, according to Bezkorovainiy, “tasted freedom” during the Maidan revolt ((“Ukrainets v sude Londona obvinyaetsya v terrorizme,” BBC, 3 November 2015, www.bbc.com/russian/uk/2015/11/151103_bezkorovainiy_hearings_old_bailey; see also http://ukraina.ru/news/20151104/1014734381.html).
