Volodymyr Ruban, a mediator in prisoner swaps between Ukraine and Russian-backed militants in Donbas, is accused of illegal firearms possession, preparing terror attacks and attempted assassination of President Petro Poroshenko and the country’s top officials, according to charges filed by the Security Service of Ukraine, known as the SBU, in Shevchenko District Court in Kyiv on March 9.

Earlier, on March 8, Ruban was arrested at the Mayorsk checkpoint near the Russian-occupied city of Horlivka in the Donetsk Oblast some 580 kilometers southeast of Kyiv while allegedly trying to smuggle a batch of weapons, including several 120-millimeter and 82-millimeter mortar mines, a 60-millimeter mortar, as well as dozen Kalashnikov assault rifles and unattached magazine cases, to Ukrainian-controlled territory.