On Tuesday, March 24, the Solomyanskyi Court of Kyiv decided to take a preventive measure against the suspect in the terrorist attack in the city of Bucha, Kyiv region, which injured two law enforcement officers. The court granted the prosecutor's office's request and sent him to custody for 60 days without bail.
A correspondent for Suspilny reports this from the courtroom.
The prosecution demanded that the suspect in the terrorist attack, 21-year-old Bohdan Tymchenko, be held in custody without bail, given that, according to the prosecutor, the man may be hiding from the court authorities.
What the suspect said in court
During his court appearance, Timchenko said that he met an alleged representative of Russian special services in an online game.
“On March 9 of this year, I went into a computer game, played for a while, and connected to one player. We started playing together. Then we started communicating, and on the same day we exchanged contacts on the Telegram messenger. We played for a while, until about the 11th. Then he said he wanted to ask me for help,” Timchenko explained the circumstances of their acquaintance.
According to him, an acquaintance asked him to go to Zhytomyr, urgently pick up the package and hand it over to another person, explaining that he could not do this on his own, since he was allegedly in Odessa.
Timchenko said he agreed to help without knowing what was inside the package. An acquaintance asked him to take a picture of the contents of the package after receiving it.
“I open it, take a picture and see that there are some pads there. I ask: “What is this?” He starts telling me: “Look, these are drugs, you need to distribute them around Zhytomyr, I will pay you for it.” I immediately said that I will not do this,” the suspect noted.
After that, Tymchenko's acquaintance said that the package should be given to another person.
“It was already evening, my mobile phone was running low, but he said that we should go to the outskirts of Zhytomyr. He offered me to rent a hotel so that I could stay overnight in Zhytomyr, and then do it all in the morning. I agreed, spent the night in the hotel,” the man said.
The next day, Timchenko returned home without delivering the package. At night, he received a call from an acquaintance on Telegram, during which he provided the personal details of Timchenko's mother, who is a servicewoman and is in a combat zone, and began to threaten her, persuading Timchenko to cooperate.
“He said I had to follow his instructions so that nothing would happen to my mother. He sent me a video from a drone showing where she was. I hung up in a panic, but the man continued to call me and threaten me. Then he sent me photos of my house,” says Tymchenko.
The detainee stated that he was under constant pressure from a representative of the Russian special services, who threatened him and his family. Because of this, he was afraid to report his actions to Ukrainian law enforcement officers. According to him, the unknown man knew about his movements, in particular, to the grocery store.
Timchenko asked the court to choose a preventive measure in the form of house arrest. He explained that he had to take care of his grandmother, who has vision problems and uses crutches. He also did not know that he was being forced to buy components for homemade explosives.
His lawyer, Andriy Serbyn, supported his client's request, noting that he had not previously been held criminally liable, had shown sincere remorse, was assisting the investigation, and had given thorough testimony.
“We are asking for a less severe preventive measure, such as 24-hour house arrest, with the wearing of an electronic bracelet,” Serbyn noted.
By court order, Timchenko will be in custody until May 21.
What is known about the terrorist attack in Bucha?
At dawn on March 23, an unknown object exploded near an apartment building in Bucha, followed by another explosion.
Not far from the site of the explosions, law enforcement officers detained a 21-year-old local resident, suspected of planting homemade explosives.
The Security Service of Ukraine has initiated criminal proceedings under Part 2 of Article 258 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — a terrorist act. On March 24, it became known that the detainee was declared a suspect. During the search, synthetic drugs were also found in his possession. The issue of additional legal qualification for the fact of their possession is being resolved.
According to the detainee, he met an unknown person online who offered him money to plant explosive devices — 25,000 hryvnias for each explosion. He also said that the man threatened and blackmailed him with information about his mother's whereabouts and allegedly stalked her with a drone.
According to the case materials, in March of this year, the man was recruited through an online game by the Russian special services. He later communicated with the supervisor in a messenger, where he received instructions and funds for training.
Following instructions, the suspect purchased the necessary components, manufactured two improvised explosive devices, and prepared them for remote detonation.
On March 23, one of the devices went off near a residential building in Bucha. The explosion damaged the building's facade, windows, and parked cars. The second device went off after law enforcement officers arrived, injuring two of them.