Officers of the Investigative Committee (SK) Department for the Lugansk People’s Republic have detained two former Ukrainian border guards on suspicion of involvement in attempted assassination of the Melovoye district prosecutor’s aide, the SK press service reported.   “On February 27, 2023, an improvised explosive device was found under the bottom of the car of a Melovoye district prosecutor’s aide. Police quickly defused it,” the SK said.   Investigators established the identity of two men who had planted the bomb. The suspects said that they had received an assignment from an officer of the Security Service of Ukraine in February. He told them to kill a district prosecutor’s office employee in order to destabilize the situation in the Republic and intimidate the local population.   They watched the target for several hours. “The explosive device was found after the aide’s car stopped. Despite the people standing around it, one of the suspects approached the vehicle and tried to set off the bomb several times with a remote control unit,” the SK said adding that the suspects had been taken into custody.   The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014.  The peace talks that began soon thereafter failed to reach tangible results due to Kiev’s position to settle the conflict by force.   Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation to protect Donbass residents from Ukrainian aggression on February 24, 2022. Prior to that, LPR and DPR Heads Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin asked the Russian leader to provide military assistance.   The Lugansk People’s Republic acceded to Russia on September 30, 2022 following the unification referendum.*i*v