Attempted assassination of deputy health minister thwarted in Kyiv

Police and SBU officers in Kyiv thwarted an assassination attempt on the First Deputy Minister of Health.

A man and a woman had been meticulously preparing for the crime for several months. They tailed the target, rented an apartment near the victim's residence, regularly changed their vehicles, and practised shooting at a range. The perpetrators were detained at the moment they were purchasing a pistol intended for the murder.

The motive for the act was that the criminals' friend died in a hospital last autumn following an accident. At that time, the Deputy Minister of Health was working as an anaesthetist at that clinic. The perpetrators held him responsible for the woman's death. 

The perpetrators now face a potential life sentence.