The SSU held counterterrorism drills in the area of ​​the Joint Forces Operation, in Starobilskyi district of Luhansk region.

The purpose of the training was to check the readiness of all CT entities to respond to possible subversions and increase the level of interagency teamwork in conducting special operations.

According to the scenario, ‘terrorists’ enter the territory of a pre-trial detention center in Starobilsk, take its employees hostage and demand to release the detainees.

As the demand is not fulfilled, their accomplices blow up a bridge across the Aydar River.

The coordination group makes a decision to start the assault phase. The team of the SSU Center of Special Operations ‘A’ neutralizes ‘terrorists’ and releases ‘hostages’.

In the meantime, the bomb squad finds the planted ‘explosive devices’ and defuses them.

Other participants of the exercise promptly restore traffic across the river, setting up a pontoon crossing. The law enforcement detains ‘saboteurs’.

The participants of the exercise included regional units of the Security Service, the Armed Forces, the National Guard, the State Border Guard Service, the National Police, the State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection, the Prosecutor’s Office, the State Penitentiary Service, the State Emergency Service, and local authorities.

According to the assessment of the coordination group of the CT Center at the SSU, the participants of the drills demonstrated readiness for well-coordinated interagency cooperation in the event of an anti-terrorist operation in the JFO area.