False flags
Staged coups. Real murders and torture. Two interviews: spymaster Poklad's extortion-provocation schemes.
The ways of ‘the strangler’ are complex. Zelensky appointed Oleksandr Poklad in early January 2026 as the first deputy head of the the Security Services of Ukraine (SBU). In reality, Poklad is the most powerful spy in the country.
Last week, we looked into Poklad’s background in the 90s as a cop who served two and a half years in prison and then set up a murderous organised crime group under the patronage of Ukraine’s richest policeman. In 2015, Poklad was appointed to head the fifth department of the SBU’s counter-intelligence department. This was the SBU’s assassination squad. The head of the counter-intelligence department from 2017-2019, a man we will encounter several times today as well, was Oleksandr Petrov.
I’ve been trying to write an article about all the bizarre murders, faked assassinations, and false flag provocations Poklad organized as chief of the SBU’s wet works department from 2015-2022. This is not a matter very forgiving to one’s sanity. The problem isn’t with trying to understand why or how Poklad’s forces killed pro-Russian fighters. The problem is all the mysterious murders of extremely ‘pro-Ukrainian’ activists at home.
There are two particularly strange affairs — testimony on Poklad’s death squads given by Sergei Sanovsky, a former fighter in the nationalist paramilitary Azov, and the highly convoluted Mikhailo Labutin affair. Investigating them takes one to all kinds of strange affairs in the 2014-18 period, the chaotic presidential reign of chocolate magnate Petro Poroshenko.
Essentially, Ukrainian law enforcement would accuse the alcohol entrepeneur Labutin of plotting a coup d’etat with the help of Sanovsky. While both long ago escaped Ukraine, Labutin’s business partner was given 6 years imprisonment with confiscation of property in 2021. Quite real charges for an obviously fake case. Labutin, as we will see in his interview, accuses Poklad and his SBU of fabricating the charges after Labutin exposed illegal alcohol production.
Instead of simply retelling these two stories, I decided to translate interviews with both Labutin and Sanovsky. Their story of Poklad’s love for extortion, torture, and ridiculous fake coups overlap. Many of the same names also reappear. The government case against Labutin claims that Sanovsky was in charge of gathering together a paramilitary force to overthrow the government. In fact, Sanovsky claims that he was tortured by the SBU, and Poklad personally, after he refused to participate in a real SBU death squad.
Tomorrow, we’ll compare these provocations to Poklad’s others, and try to tease out the underlying logic to the madness.
For now, pay attention to the SBU figures keep on turning up in both testimonies: the SBU officers and agents Poklad, Petrov, Lisogor. It is this network that has learned to profit immensely from staging constant false flag assassinations. Such shocking events justify the existence and power of the SBU, and also has the added benefit of forcing wealthy businessmen and politicians to pay for the SBU’s ‘protection services’.
Those who refuse to participate in these death squads, or any other SBU corruption schemes, are tortured into confessing they were planning a coup d’etat in cooperation with the Russians. Here’s an excerpt from later on in today’s interview:
They brought me into one of the offices, and after some time, Major Poklad entered — whom I already knew — and without saying a word, without asking anything, simply began to strangle me. Then he said, “Let’s get the gas mask,” put it on me, sprayed something from a canister.
Sanovsky
This 2018 interview comes from the Ukrainian journalist, Anatoly Shariy. He currently lives in the EU, and covers a range of topics generally ignored by Ukraine’s journalistic elite.
Shariy: Hello, dear friends.
Our interlocutor’s name is Sergey.
Sergey is currently in Europe.
Sergey is now under the protection of one of the European states.
Sergey can no longer be reached.
Sergey is talking about things that previously were known only to a fairly narrow circle of initiated people, as well as to people who specifically took an interest in certain topics that Sergey is voicing on our channel.
Interviews with Sergey will be released.
This is the first part.
Friends, I ask you to share this video, because it seems to me that this is important.
Well, you’ll watch it now and decide for yourselves whether it’s important or not.
Enjoy watching.
Subscribe.
Hello, I’m Sasha Sanovsky.
I am a former serviceman, served in a special operations unit of the Ukrainian army.
After demobilization, I took part in the protests on the Maidan (November 2013-February 2014 - EIU) and supported them through to their conclusion (president Viktor Yanukovych was forced to flee the country and a nationalist government took power - EIU).
From the beginning of the anti-terrorist operation [ATO, counter-insurgency against pro-Russian forces in the east - EIU], I took part in the ATO.
After that, I engaged in accessibility-related work and was deputy head of a training camp near Zolote in Kiev.
After that, I continued to engage in instructor work, founded several public organizations, and took an honest, active civic position.
Recently, I spoke critically about certain reforms and certain actions of the government.
That criticism is basically connected with everything that is happening in the country.
Again, there are two parallel worlds: one where things supposedly happen one way, and another that existed in parallel in Kiev.
Here everything was changing, everything was being destroyed.
There is basically no going back anymore, when people are “doing business” while the guys at the front are doing God knows what.
Yes, guys from the government, you were “doing business,” but this concerns absolutely all layers of the population, all professions in Ukraine.
Absolutely everything fell into wild decline instantly, because people started stealing tens of times more.
Before, there was at least some kind of wording — in the Water Code, for example — “covert appropriation.”
They used to steal covertly.
Now they steal openly.
They steal hundreds of millions, billions.
During the war, I also had to see cases of smuggling and cases of trade with the occupied territories, which goes on constantly, at full speed, as if no governance exists.
Well, of course, yes. [I translated an article about this here - EIU]
I’ll tell you about how I got acquainted with an interesting person in 2014, Andrey Borisovich Lisogor.
That year, my comrade was taken prisoner, and there was a strong desire to somehow get him released.
Through that, I was introduced to one of the servicemen of a mechanized brigade serving in the ATO zone.
Let’s call him a “local kingpin,” in the sense that at that time he positioned himself as the unofficial deputy of Ruban, who was the head of the Officer Corps organization and personally accepted applications for prisoner exchanges.
He could resolve this issue.
He was also an unofficial adviser to the head of the SBU’s counterintelligence department, General Oleksiy Petrov.
Of course, the wider public knows him as an ultra-patriotic instructor.
People don’t understand why certain problems arise around him.
They go to him for advice.
For example, he advises on bodyguards — for some politicians, for some activists — who later turn out to be counterintelligence agents, and in some cases even active operatives, who then fully document the activities of these people, their entire lives, and later create problems for them.
His personality is very interesting.
We were introduced, we talked.
He promised to help.
We struck up conversations.
He began inviting me to trainings as an instructor, to various events — some side work, so to speak.
And thus certain trusting relations began to form almost from the very beginning of our acquaintance.
Very veiled, he would talk about and suggest that some kind of certain units were being created — not very secret ones — recruiting only experienced fighters and the like.
But later it turned out that this was not some semi-secret unit, but simply absolutely illegal groups engaged in completely black operations under the patronage of the highest state officials.
As our communication progressed, he increasingly leaned toward recruiting veterans — it was completely unclear where and for what purpose.
Naturally, I refused, because I did not understand whom he was recruiting, where, or what these people would be doing.
During the course of our communication, we had several meetings together with another very interesting person — SBU Major Aleksandr Poklad.
He is the deputy head of one of the directorates of the Counterintelligence Department of the Security Service of Ukraine [this is the 5th directorate, set up in 2015 as the SBU’s assassination squad - EIU]
A rather well-known figure, although I learned this only later.
At the first meeting, Oleksandr Poklad — for reasons unclear to me — during a generally casual conversation began showing me photos of executed Azov fighters, as he claimed.
He showed photos of their bodies.
He said they had supposedly robbed cash-in-transit couriers.
This is also a very interesting story, because based on what he told me, it was extremely implausible.
We will cover this later — most likely, the guys were simply executed.
I think he showed this in order to intimidate me somehow or to make an impression.
Like, “I’m this kind of person.”
Later, some other very interesting things were discussed, which we will definitely voice later.
They are indirectly connected with the cases of Nadiya Savchenko [a popular nationalist fighter who, after finally returning from Russian captivity in 2016, was accused in 2018 of organizing a bizarre Russian-inspired coup against Ukrainian president Poroshenko, and imprisoned until 2019. She was accused, imprisoned and released along with the aforementioned Ruban - EIU], Arkady Babchenko [a journalist whose assassination was staged by the SBU in 2018 - EIU, and others.
At least in some conversations, it was specifically stated that the formation of the groups I am now talking about is carried out under the supervision and leadership of Major Poklad.
Tasks are set directly by General Oleksiy Petrov.
General Oleksiy Petrov, bypassing the head of the SBU, directly receives tasks from President Petro Poroshenko.
Around the beginning of June last year, we met in the Chaika residential area near Kyiv, in one of the Eastern cuisine restaurants.
A fairly frank and very interesting conversation took place.
He specifically proposed that I assemble a group of six to eight people — former comrades or other veterans with experience in street fighting or special skills.
Then this group was to undergo a series of disciplines — special training — at a base of a specially created counterintelligence “public organization” of Ukrainian veterans.
For the general public, this is presented as training for ATO veterans, some kind of volunteer work.
In reality, it’s not that at all.
This group was to undergo special training.
I was to lead it.
The group was to carry out tasks involving the liquidation of politicians.
The activity was to be conducted throughout the entire territory of Ukraine.
I clarified whether this was connected in any way with the fight against separatism.
He said it had nothing to do with separatism.
At first I thought it might be the elimination of separatist leaders or, in the worst case, their sponsors.
But he clearly stated that it had no relation to eliminating sponsors of separatism or terrorism.
It was the liquidation — one could phrase it this way — of absolutely civilian individuals.
Targets that would be indicated directly by the Counterintelligence Department of the Security Service.
He said these could be politicians, and he emphasized that they were not necessarily opposition figures — also certain activists [‘activists’ is the term used by Ukrainian nationalists to refer to themselves - EIU].
In short, those who interfere with the current regime or contradict certain financial interests.
