Decision to disband our unit was made by Zelenskyy because of my testimony to National Anti-Corruption Bureau, my family is being persecuted, I am being held in appalling conditions and guarded like criminal - Kasianov
Yuriy Kasianov, an officer of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, an aerial reconnaissance specialist, believes that the decision to liquidate his unit was made personally by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Kasyanov wrote about this on Facebook, Censor.NET reports.
"The decision to liquidate our unit was made by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy because I am a whistleblower in the Fire Point case and a key witness. On 2 October, I testified to NABU detectives. On 3 October, in the morning, the liquidation of the unit was announced," he said, and called on the NABU to provide him and his family with protection under the witness protection programme.
"I left the president room for manoeuvre - I urged him to change his decision, went to Maidan, blamed only Yermak, held backroom talks with members of his team, even raised a white flag in an attempt to maintain an effective unit and not to persecute me and my family members.
I fought for consolidation in society around the figure of the president and supreme commander-in-chief. The president did not hear me and decided to crack down. Because my testimony includes his name," Kasianov writes.
"The persecution of NABU detectives, an attempt to put NABU under control through legislative amendments, and now the liquidation of our unit, the persecution of me and my family members, the flow of 'dirt' on the network, the attack on the family business - all this is an act of demonstrative reprisal against top corrupt officials who earn billions of dollars from the war," the military adds.
He also said that he is now in the Rivne region, at the collection and transfer point of the 1st Border Guard Detachment (Gart Brigade) in brutal conditions, in fact, in the position of an arrested person.
"I, a senior officer, a volunteer since 2014, was accommodated in the same barracks as the mobilised, not allowed to leave, guarded as an evader. My physical condition is deteriorating every day. Deyneka will not let me out of here alive," Kasianov concludes.
What happened before?
On 3 October, Yuriy Kasyanov, an SBGS officer, aerial reconnaissance specialist and founder of the Matrix-UAV unmanned aerial vehicle bureau, said that the disbandment of the unit he led, the company of strike unmanned aerial vehicles of the 10th mobile detachment of the SBGS, had been ordered by the head of the Presidential Office, Andrii Yermak.
According to him, the soldiers of the unit are being "dragged" for interrogation by the Internal Security Service and a polygraph. He warned Yermak about the pressure and harassment.
Kasianov also appealed to President Zelenskyy to address the liquidation of an effective unit. In addition, he said that he was coming to the OP on Maidan.
On the evening of Sunday, 5 October, Kasyanov, together with his family and supporters, came to Maidan to protest against the disbandment of his effective unit. The soldier said that they waited for more than two hours for President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, but he never came.
Later, Kasyanov said that the command dismissed the officer who was acting commander. The soldier has been held on the territory of the military unit since Saturday.
On 6 October, the State Border Guard Service reported that Kasianov's unit had been disbanded due to the lack of effectiveness in performing its tasks.
Yurii Kasianov called the statements of the State Border Guard Service about the lack of results of the UAV strike company a lie.
