[Ed. note – a news roundup on the situation in Crimea/Ukraine ]
Russia has deployed its advanced S-400 air defense missile system to annexed Crimea, Russian news agencies reported on Friday, citing a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry.
The announcement comes two days after President Vladimir Putin promised to take counter-measures after what he said were clashes between Russian forces and Ukrainian saboteurs in northern Crimea.
The ministry had earlier in the day announced that its navy would start to hold three-day military exercises in the Black Sea to practice repelling underwater attacks by saboteurs.
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Source Claims Ukrainian Defense Ministry Employee is Organizer of Subversive Acts
MOSCOW, August 12. /TASS/. Vladimir Serdyuk, an employee of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate, was the organizer of a sabotage operation in Crimea, a source in the Russian special services said on Friday.
“Captain Vladimir Serdyuk, chief of the intelligence unit of the 37th battalion of the 56th brigade of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate, was the organizer of the planned subversive actions in Crimea,” the source said.
According to Russia’s intelligence services, Serdyuk came to Ukraine’s Kherson region (north of Crimea) just before planning to get three subversive groups into Crimea to coordinate their actions and ensure their retreat after carrying out the acts of sabotage.
According to the source, one suspect has been arrested and several more have been detained in connection with the recent sabotage attempts in Crimea.
“Yevgeny Panin, the subversive group’s coordinator, has been arrested. Crimean resident Andrei Zakhtei (born 1975), and R.Suleimanov, an agent of the main intelligence department of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, have been detained,” the source said.
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Crimea Terror Plot Suspect Zakhtey Revealed to Operate Sabotage Group
One of the suspects in the thwarted terrorist plot on the Crimean peninsula late last week was revealed to operate a sabotage group and was found housing explosives, a Russian intelligence source said Friday.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The source said searches uncovered 6.6 pounds of explosives, a grenade and SIM cards inside a vehicle belonging to Andrey Zakhtey, the sabotage group’s operator.
Separately, a suspect nicknamed “Yuzef” was tasked with planting dummy bombs – ranging from a bottle with a mobile phone and wires to four bars of soap wired to a watch – at the Simferopol airport to test local security services.
On Wednesday, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had uncovered a spy ring over the weekend in Crimea organized by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, and prevented two Kiev-led terrorist attempts to break into the peninsula.
In a statement broadcast by the Rossiya 24 news channel earlier in the day, one of the suspects confessed to planning to plant explosives in the Simferopol airport and bus terminal during the thwarted attack.
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Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry Wants OSCE Monitors at Border with Crimea
Diplomats also ask international human rights missions to gain access to Ukrainian citizens detained by the Russian authorities
The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has asked international organisations to undertake measures to gain access to the border with Russia and Russia-occupied Crimea and to Ukrainian citizens presently in Russian detention.
“The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine has officially sent a note to the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine about the need to increase the OSCE SMM’s presence along the entire administrative border with the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and along Ukraine’s border with the Russian Federation, including the temporarily uncontrolled stretch of the Ukrainian-Russian state border,” the ministry said in a statement.
The Ukrainian ministry also insisted that the OSCE SMM undertake measures to gain access to Crimea to assess the situation on the Russian-controlled territory of the peninsula in keeping with Resolution No. 1117 by the OSCE Permanent Council on deploying the OSCE SMM to Ukraine.
The ministry said it had also asked the OSCE SMM, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine to take steps to gain access to Ukrainian citizens detained by the Russian authorities, including Yevhen Panov, who was arrested on suspicion of plotting an act of sabotage in Crimea.
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on August 10 that it had averted attempts by Ukrainian sabotage groups to enter Crimea. The FSB also said it had eliminated the Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate’s network in Crimea and detained the saboteurs. Ukrainian citizen Yevhen Panov, resident of Zaporizhia region’s town of Enerhodar, was among those detained. In response, Ukraine’s police opened a criminal case in connection with the kidnapping of Panov.
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[Ed. note – I’m going to take a wild guess and say that the Yevgeny Panin referred to in the Tass article, and the Yevhen Panov referred to in the Ukraine Today article, are the same person.
The following video shows him under interrogation by Russian authorities ]
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[ Ed. note – Panin/Panov’s brother, interviewed by US Government-run Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, refers to the attack in Crimea as an “anti-terrorist operation” ]
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[Ed. note – Now the Ukrainian authorities are apparently trying to spin the story that Panin/Panov was acting on his own…]
Yehven Panov Arrested by Russia’s FSB Crossed into Crimea on His Own–Ukrainian Intelligence (Video)
Panov’s family claimed he was abducted from Zaporizhia region and forcibly brought to the peninsula
Ukrainian citizen Yevhen Panov, captured by Russia’s FSB special service and accused of plotting terror attacks, crossed into the temporarily occupied peninsula himself, on his own car.
The representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate at Ukraine’s Defense Ministry Vadym Skibitsky reported about while commenting on the case for the Ukrainian 112 TV channel.
Skibitsky added the information is preliminary.
As earlier reported, brother of Panov said he was abducted and taken to Crimea to stage a provocation against Ukraine. On August 11 Ukraine’s police have launched a criminal investigation into his disappearance.
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Suspected Crimea Attack Plotter Says Planned to Bomb Simferopol Airport
[Ed. note – unfortunately, the story doesn’t identify whether it’s Panin/Panov or one of the other arrestees ]
One of the suspected plotters of the foiled Crimea attacks said that he planned to plant bombs in the airport and bus terminal of the city of Simferopol.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – One of the suspected plotters of the foiled Crimea attacks confessed Friday to planning to plant explosives in the airport and bus terminal of the city of Simferopol.
On Wednesday, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said that it had dismantled a spy ring organized by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry in Crimea, which was preparing acts of sabotage on “critical and life-supporting elements of the peninsula’s infrastructure.”
The questioning was broadcast on the Rossiya 24 television channel.
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Uprooted Palestinian 
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