Is it true that the wife of the man who shot Robert Fico is Ukrainian?

After the assassination attempt on the Prime Minister of Slovakia on May 15, 2024, a version began to spread in the media and social networks that the shooter’s wife was a native of Ukraine, who pushed her husband to commit the crime. We checked whether these claims are substantiated.

On May 15, after a visiting meeting of the Slovak government in the city of Gandlova, the Prime Minister of the country Robert Fico was committed assassination attempt: when a politician came to talk to a group of local residents, a man from the crowd seriously wounded him with several shots from a pistol. Fico was soon taken to the hospital and underwent surgery. By data as of May 29, his condition is gradually improving, but due to the severe nature of the injuries received, this process is not going quickly. Criminal detained on the spot, it turned out to be the Slovak writer Juraj Cintula.

Soon the Russian media began write about the “Ukrainian trace” in the assassination attempt on Fico: Tsintula’s wife allegedly turned out to be Ukrainian and incited her husband to attack the politician, whose views were many think pro-Russian. On Telegram, the version about the Ukrainian wife was shared by, among others, the writer Zakhar Prilepin (102,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), television and radio presenter Armen Gasparyan (80,000), channels «Fisherman"(313,000), "Evil proof"(200,000), "Sheikh Tamir" (131,000) and "Release the Kraken!"(129,000). Newspaper "Moskovsky Komsomolets"called the woman a Ukrainian refugee and Maidan activist, and "Arguments and facts” entitled their article about Tsintul as follows: “Pervert, Ukrainian wife. The personal problems of the shooter of Fico have been named.” Russian publicist Alexander Dyukov wrote in his Telegram channel (46,000 views): “The wife of Tsintula, who attempted to kill Fico, was arrested in Slovakia. Then the beautiful begins: she is a refugee from Ukraine and was inciting her husband to take revenge on the pro-Russian politician. Ukrainians are killing. There are no exceptions."

In addition, many Russian Telegram channels disseminated information about the detention of Tsintula’s wife at Bratislava airport “while trying to escape.” Channel Win/Win (406,000 views) wrote: “This Ukrainian citizen, who did not want to take her husband’s surname after marriage in 2020, was detained at Bratislava airport while trying to fly to Warsaw. I was under house arrest, but I couldn’t stay at home. In addition, the woman violated her obligation to appear before the investigator. Tomorrow the court will choose a preventive measure for her. The main suspect. A guide, an accomplice, a mediator. To choose from."

In turn, the Telegram channel “SVO reports and analytics” (87,000 views) published an “exclusive insider” that the Slovak police allegedly received screenshots of the woman’s correspondence with the Ukrainian special services. “The mailbox was probably hacked and the correspondence went straight to the police. Now the police will figure out whether they wrote or did not write whether she was recruited by Ukraine or not. But from today, for the whole world, the prime minister of a European country was brought down by the Ukrainian special services. And this is no longer a joke,” the post says.

On the evening of May 15, 2024, shortly after the assassination attempt on Fico, Slovak Interior Minister Matus Sutaj saidthat the shooter “clearly had political motives.” Three weeks before the attack on the Prime Minister, Tsintula was seen at a protest against government policy towards Ukraine (on video he is wearing a striped jumper with a white poster). And after the arrest, the writer and activist admittedthat he did not agree with insufficient the volume of military assistance to Kyiv.

By messages Slovak press, in the evening of the same day the police went to Tsintula’s apartment and took his wife Elena Tsintulova for questioning by the police. On video a woman comes out of the entrance, accompanied by police, covering her face with a newspaper. According to the Slovak publication Pravda, law enforcement officers accompanied Tsintulova only for security reasons, and not because she was under arrest. Although it is not known exactly when the woman was released from interrogation and where she is now, there have been no reports from the Slovak Ministry of Internal Affairs or the prosecutor's office in the two weeks since the assassination attempt that she has been charged or is under house arrest, as claimed Russian sources.

There is also no confirmation that “the police received screenshots of the correspondence between the terrorist’s wife and the Ukrainian intelligence services.” At the meeting held on May 22 press conferences with the participation of the Deputy Prime Minister, Prosecutor General and Minister of Internal Affairs of Slovakia, the “Ukrainian trace” was not mentioned, and the Slovak Ministry of Internal Affairs published fast that you should not believe fakes about Ukraine’s involvement in the assassination attempt on Fico.

Messages the fact that Tsintulova was detained at Bratislava airport while trying to escape and that the court intends to choose a preventive measure for her is not confirmed either by police statements or information from reputable Slovak media. Press Secretary of the General Prosecutor's Office of Slovakia Zuzana Drobova in a comment to the agency AFP called these statements false.

Also, the country's authorities refuted assertion that Tsintulova is a refugee from Ukraine. Several details from the biography of the spouses indicate that they lived in Slovakia, if not their entire lives, then at least several decades. TV channel Markiza TV spoke with the couple's neighbor Ondrej Szabo, who said that Cintula and his wife had lived in the city of Levice for about 40 years. The deputy director of the gymnasium located there, where Tsintulova taught geography, also confirmedthat the woman worked at the educational institution from 1979 to 2005, after which she retired. Neither a neighbor nor a former colleague of Tsintulova didn't rememberso that she speaks Ukrainian or talks about any connection with this country.

Police also searched the couple's cottage in the village of Yablonevets, where Tsintulova was born, according to information from her profile on Facebook. According to title documents released by the agency. AFP, the woman owns part of this house. In addition to the Tsintulova cottage owns shares of land in Yablonevets, which she inherited in 2004 and 2011.

Statements Russian Telegram channels that Tsintula’s wife is “a citizen of Ukraine who did not want to take her husband’s surname after marriage in 2020” also at least raise doubts. Firstly, the couple’s acquaintances and neighbors claimthat the couple have two adult children together, which means it is unlikely that they got married only in 2020. Secondly, Elena did not refuse to take her husband’s surname and in all sources (including her page on Facebook) appears as Tsintulova (additional suffix explained peculiarities of the Slovak language).

Thus, the assertion that Tsintula’s wife is a refugee from Ukraine or that she is somehow connected with the Ukrainian special services is speculation by pro-Russian bloggers and media trying to spread the narrative about the “Ukrainian trace” in the assassination attempt on Fico. Information about the arrest of a woman at the airport while trying to escape was also denied by the Slovak police.

Cover photo: YouTube

Fake

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