In this interview Captain Paul Barril, ex-GIGN officer and counter-terrorism expert, who was allegedly making plans for a visit to Donetsk to meet its leader, Alexander Zakharchenko, makes some shocking claims about the latter’s murder (translated from the French).

NOTE: we originally published this article last week, but then removed it pending authentication that Barril had spoken the words attributed to him. We’ve recently been sent confirmation that this does indeed come from him. The interviewer has asked for their identity not to be revealed at this time

26 September 2018

INTERVIEWER: Many thanks, Captain Barril for this opportunity. Could you first tell us a few words about your important public service for the French Republic? You were one of the co-founders of GIGN (the elite counter-terrorism unit of the French National Gendarmerie)?

CAPT. BARRIL: Yes indeed, way back in the past, at the very beginning of it’s activity in the 1980s.

INT: You also worked for some French Presidents?

CB: Yes, I worked for President Giscard d’Estaing and President Mitterrand.

INT: This September you were going to meet Alexander Zakharchenko, the leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic, to share certain information with his protection service. Do you know (or have any idea) who killed him?

CB: I know who killed Alexander Zakharchenko in Donetsk. This was done by the 3rd Special Operations Regiment of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine. Training was provided by US instructors at the Khmelnitsky Training Centre, one of their bases in Ukraine.

It is important to understand the context. Donbass is a very sensitive zone, where NATO in engaged in a proxy war against Russia. Ukraine serves as a NATO stooge, but Donetsk is on Russia’s side. The Head of the DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic) Alexander Zakharchenko was pro-Moscow and Putin’s close supporter. You need to know that since 2014 various western intelligence services have been operating in Donbass. In April 2014 the CIA chief John Brennan came to Kiev using a fictitious name to give instructions (for Euromaidan). And now they have CIA instructors over there, Canadians too. They undertake specific action to crush the Donetsk Republic.

INT: Thus, you claim, Canadians, Americans and British are connected with the Ukrainian secret services – with the SBU & Ukraine’s Military Intelligence?

CB: All forces that oppose Russia are now present in Ukraine. Actually, by committing the murder of the Donetsk leader they struck a painful blow to Russia, albeit not directly.

INT: How did they commit this murder?

CB: The murder was undertaken in the “Separ” cafe which is in a very well protected zone in the centre of Donetsk. They hid a tiny smart bomb above the entrance in the lobby, undetected by sniffer dogs. When the leader walked in, the bomb was activated from a long distance and exploded. The blast killed Alexander Zakharchenko and his bodyguard, critically injured a lady and left his deputy, Alexander Tashkent (who was a second target), badly burnt and shell-shocked.

INT: British and Americans, as a rule, use bombs to remove “objectionable” people?

CB: In recent history, during the war in Chechnya US instructors trained terrorists to mount explosives in lamp-post bases. They used the power supply network as an electro-detonator. When the Russian Army and tanks entered the road, the terrorists pushed the button. The explosions would strike Russian equipment and personnel within the radius of a few meters. That caught the Russians off-guard, because those hidden bombs are just not in Russia’s military “DNA”. But they are very much so in America’s.

The CIA and Green Berets have the world’s most advanced boobytraps, and the one in the “Separ” restaurant is a “signature” British or American job.

Even Gaddafi’s explosives’ specialists were trained and armed by former CIA operatives. They helped them to disguise booby traps as lamps, alarm clocks, vases, radios and even ashtrays. So, those who installed the bomb in Donetsk were US-trained, these smart bombs are their signature.

Americans and Brits favour bombs when they want to kill somebody. Obviously, in this case, they also used a local mole who helped the group which actually set the booby trap. So, while France is working within the Normandy Four contact group trying to bring about an end to the civil war in Ukraine, the Anglo-American Deep State foments a new war there.

INT: Can you provide more details? Did you get this intel from your sources at DGSE (the French external intelligence agency)?

CB: Details are secret, I have said all that I can. But I am still going to Donetsk, where I’ll meet the new Head of the Republic, Mr. Denis Pushilin. We will share all information with Denis Pushilin.

INT: Thank you very much for inviting us, Captain Barril.