Roman Chervinskyi, suspected of exceeding his authority during the special operation at the Kanatove airfield, spoke about the details of this operation in an interview with Ukrainian Pravda.
According to him, the day before the planned event, he directed his people, together with representatives of the Air Force, to create a corridor for the passage of the Russian plane.
At the same time, Chervinsky was in a meeting with the commanding general and the general of the Air Force, where it was decided that he and 20 other officers would also arrive at the airfield to secure and capture the Russian pilot. The operation was kept secret from the airfield military due to the risk of information leakage.
Chervinskyi said that he got to the airfield by helicopter, which was provided by order of the commander of the Air Force. A representative of the territorial command and several people who were setting up communication flew with him. Chervinskyi's subordinates were driving cars, and the SBU employee was heading to Lviv, where the Russian pilot's wife was supposed to appear. However, she did not arrive at the specified time. Despite this, Chervinsky decided to stay on Kanatovo because there was a possibility of the pilot's arrival, and the military Air Force who was with him knew how to act in such a situation.
Chervinsky claims that the shelling of the airfield was a planned risk, and the operation had nothing to do with the shelling. He emphasized that their actions did not weaken the Air Defense Forces of Ukraine and the airfield. According to him, the Russian pilot Roman Nosenko was chosen for the operation, since his connections with the FSB were not revealed.
The operation was organized by the SBU, and Chervinskyi claims that he informed his management about it, who then reported it to Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny. The latter gave a verbal sanction for the operation. Chervinsky and the Air Force commander discussed the technical details with the Russian pilot, after which Zaluzhny gave the final approval. The written sanction was destroyed, but there is a letter from Zaluzhny to the SBU, which testifies to his knowledge of the case.
Roman Chervinskyi, the former commander of one of the units of the Special Operations Forces, is accused of exceeding his official powers, which led to the shelling of the Kanatove airfield. According to the investigation, he independently decided to conduct an operation to seize a Russian plane. The head of the SBU, Vasyl Malyuk, claims that the operation was not agreed with the state authorities and contained many risks. Chervinskyi considers the case against him to be politically motivated and connects it with previous statements about the failure of the operation with the "Wagnerivites".
In November 2023, an American newspaper suggested that Chervinsky might be involved in blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which Ukraine officially denies. After more than a year of detention in the pretrial detention center, Chervinsky was released on bail in the amount of 9 million hryvnias, which was provided by People's Deputy Petro Poroshenko. However, the very next day, Chervinsky was detained again on suspicion of trying to get hold of $100,000.
