Case of Kulinich, accused of treason: is there compromising material on Yermak and Zelenskyy
Oleh Kulinich is the former head of the Security Service of Ukraine in Crimea, accused of treason. It was after his detention that Ivan Bakanov was dismissed from the post of head of the SSU. Kulinich’s case is currently being considered by the Shevchenkivskyi Court. The hearing in the case was closed to journalists.
The defense says that this was done after Kulinich himself read out materials from the flash drive, which is evidence for his prosecution, concerning Bakanov's brother-in-law and President Zelenskyy's friend Oleksandr Beliaiev. At the same time, law enforcement officers say that there are no political sensations on the flash drive, and the state traitor Kulinich is simply trying to distract attention from the essence of the case and avoid responsibility.
Censor.NET investigated whether the publication of data on Beliaiev is related to the closure of meetings for the press and whether Kulinich's case can really fall apart.
Agent Kotyhoroshko (Pea-Roll-Along -ed.) from Derkach's sphere of influence
Oleh Kulinich was detained on charges of treason in the summer of 2022, he is accused of being part of Volodymyr Sivkovych's group, passing data to the FSB and obstructing the work of counterintelligence with personnel replacements.
"It is obvious that both Sivkovych and Kliuiev were recruited in Moscow, and through them and their contacts, the FSB tried to influence the situation in Ukraine. They had a plan from creating an economic and energy crisis to discrediting Zelenskyy, various fakes, and they succeeded in many of these," the source told Censor.NET.
According to the investigation, Kulinich became one of these agents of the aggressor state under the nickname Kotyhoroshko (Pea-Roll-Along-ed.).
Immediately after the detention, the SSU published recordings of conversations between Kulinich and Sivkovych, where they discussed personnel rotations in the SSU in order to keep the special service under the control of this group of people, and at the same time the FSB.
All conversations between Kulinich and Sivkovich take place before his reinstatement in the special service. And hence the question of how he was able to organize his influence there so effectively. Although his biography may partially close these issues.
Oleh Kulinich is a graduate of the Academy of the FSB of the Russian Federation, from which he graduated in 1994, that is, already at the time of Ukraine's independence, then served in the Federal Counterintelligence Service of the Russian Federation. And this should have closed his way to the SSU. But according to media reports, he studied there with another person accused of treason - Andrii Derkach, a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of many convocations and the son of the first head of the SSU.
Kulinich's further career also developed clearly in close relations with Derkach, and photos from charter flights seized during searches are just another piece of evidence.
In the early 2000s, Kulinich became an adviser to the Minister of Fuel and Energy and the Deputy Prime Minister of Energy. In 2006, he received the position of vice president of NJSC Energoatom, which was controlled by Andrii Derkach for many years.
According to ZN. UA, in 2007, Kulinich won the position of head of the State Committee for Land Resources in the government of Yuliia Tymoshenko — under the quota of the Lytvyn Bloc and at the request of Andrii Derkach.
Then 10-year gap in Kulinich's biography, and suddenly he returned to the SSU again. According to the defendant himself, this happened after he worked at Zelenskyy's headquarters and became close to the official head of the headquarters Bakanov. At the same time, our interlocutor says that he "did not see Kulinich" in the headquarters, so it is not worth talking about his influence on the election campaign.
For a long time, the SSU secretly led Kulinich from Bakanov. The investigation documented the transfer of classified official information by Kulinich to Sivkovych during 2019 and 2020.
"They plan to create within the framework of this [Department of Internal Security] the 13th department, which is more deadly. I don't understand it yet, but when I come back, I will present it to you," Kulinich tells Sivkovych in one of the fragments of the recordings published by the SSU.
"Well, we don't have much time, I'll tell you. There's a couple of months really. In these two months we need to quickly stuff people and then build a structure on the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC), otherwise, it will not work," - set the task Sivkovych.
"The phrase about the 13th department is enough to charge him with treason. This is the transfer of classified information that threatens the work of the service," says a law enforcement source to Censor.NET.
"As for the work of the Crimean department, it did nothing there - no spies, no network that would help us work on the peninsula," he adds.
In addition to the recordings, the SSU also recorded joint meetings of Sivkovych and Kulinich abroad, already in 2021.
Weaknesses of the Kulinich case
Kulinich's lawyers greatly benefited from the fact that the investigation had to abandon a number of details of the case. In particular, from the assertion that the case was the result of deep insight into the Russian special services. Although in practice, our sources confirm that the information was obtained through intelligence and technical insight, but at the moment it is impossible to disclose the details of security issues. Details are promised later.
Trust was also undermined by the fact that in the course of the investigation, it somehow turned out that the Okhotnyk (Hunter-ed.) mentioned by Kulinich and Sivkovych, who was supposed to be attached to the SSU, turned out to be not the deputy head of the SSU, Andrii Naumov, as the media wrote. Although sources advise not to pay attention to this – this in no way affects the evidence base for treason.
Initially, Kulinich was also charged with leaving his place of service and surrendering the South. But now, according to his lawyers, investigators prefer not to mention these accusations.
"As of today, the former head of the Main Directorate of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Kulinich O.M., does not appear in criminal proceedings..., which investigates the circumstances of the improper defense of the Kherson region, which led to the rapid occupation of this territory by Russian troops," the SBI said in its response to the BBC's request.
Of course, Kulinich used all this to prove his innocence.
"Did I have Bakanov's order to move (meaning redeployment from Kherson to Kyiv)? I confirm that I had it. And if you analyze the correctness of my actions, then I would actually do the same. I don't see any wrongdoing in this situation. Let me explain why. As you probably understand from the name of the body (Kulinich headed the Crimean department - ed.), I do not have an area of responsibility that concerns the mainland of Ukraine. And the Kherson region, which was left before me - because I was the last one to leave it - is not within my competence," Kulinich answered journalists' questions on November 16 about his move to Kyiv, which was one of the points of his accusation.
According to him, even in the documents in the case file, one of the places of his deployment is the address in Pechersk. And all decisions were made in the office of the deputy head of the Security Service of Ukraine Horbenko, where the headquarters was located, and where Bakanov himself was sitting.
Kulinich confirmed to reporters that the service was aware of the invasion. The fact that they didn't want to hear it above is another matter.
"They knew, they didn't want to hear. Regarding the direct invasion, as of January 1, 2022, in fact, the combat arrangements of the Russian Federation have been equipped and formed. After this date, additional units did not arrive on the territory of the occupied Crimea. They were all deployed. And if you ask the military - and you know that from my case they received material on Zaluzhnyi, the 'South' command and Naiev - they will say that we were waiting. The dates were different – both in January and in February. But I admit, since we lived in a constant waiting mode, I will say honestly that on the 23rd we exhaled somewhat and decided that they would go celebrate February 23. It "hit" on the 24th. But I can't say that we weren't ready in terms of my area of responsibility. The elements of the training that I had been given, they all worked. I, unlike many others, did not lose personnel, thank God, not a single case fell into the hands of the enemy, not a single weapon got there, I did not allow imbalances, which, by the way, is confirmed by the case materials, which these prosecutors do not want to recognize," Kulinich told reporters.
He considers his relocation to Kyiv to be fully justified and argues that protecting the capital was more important.
"Was it you who filmed the story and said that 95% ran away?" he asks the journalist. "I confirm. And they ran away from me. Think about it, more than 30 colonels and lieutenant colonels, who came to the deployment from Crimea, made themself scarce, and fled to the Western Ukraine. And where were they? Having turned off the mobile connection, they were sitting in the city of Bari, in the dormitory of the distillery.
The SSU only smiles skeptically at these remarks of Kulinich. "He knows very well where he had the order to move. And it was not Kyiv, they were waiting for him in another city of Ukraine. And he had to get there. It's like you expect that you have 3 machine guns and three fighters, and suddenly one of them texts you, and I'm in the mountains," says the source of the publication.
According to him, Kulinich is lying when he says that some of his subordinates have escaped.
"No one ran away from him – this is not true, but the fact that he handed over weapons to others is already a crime. You know that he took the weapons from his own people and gave them to those who needed them more, as he said. How did he determine it? Why did he leave his employees unarmed?" the source asks.
Another person accused of treason, the head of the Kharkiv Security Service of Ukraine, Roman Dudin, wrote after the trial that "on February 24, Bakanov had only one combat group capable of carrying out orders, this is a combined group under the leadership of O. Poklad. After receiving the command to gather special forces and leaders in Kyiv, it was Kulinich who led the SECOND group, which, by the way, consisted mainly of k-shniks (ex-inmates -ed.) who remained in Kyiv, and it was Kulinich who began to demand that Maliuk's supporters immediately return to Kyiv."
"First of all, at first we didn't even know where Bakanov was. Secondly, now I will tell you how Kulinich managed here. He lined up, then, the k-shniks (ex-inmates -ed.), and let's give them orders. And one of them stands and says, "Who are you? What powers do you have?" He said, "I'm from Bakanov." "Really? Show me the document." That's how he commanded them. They laughed at him, and that's it," the sources said.
Also, according to them, both Dudin and Kulinich's families hid in the first days of the war in Holosiivska Pushcha, with Onufrii. "They have a monastery and a sanatorium there – that's where they lived," says the source of the publication.
According to law enforcement officers, Kulinich is simply trying to use certain procedural failures and shortcomings in the law for his defense, as well as the fact that not all the details of the work of the special service can be said to the public.
"Do you know how many phones were seized from him during the search? Eight! So, he managed to block three of them. Why would you lock your phone if you're innocent. There are materials that we found in Marina Tierientieva's mail, which were also on Kulinich's computer. Is this also a coincidence?" the interlocutor in law enforcement agencies asked.
Flash drive and "compromising evidence" on Zelenskyy
In the summer, the BBC published a text that the Kulinich case could fall apart. After all, all of it is actually built around recordings of conversations.
Law enforcement officers allegedly restored Sivkovych's conversations with Kulinich from deleted recordings on a flash drive, which a month before Kulinich's detention, on June 20, 2022, was found during a search of a house in Kyiv at Peredova Street, 5, "on the third floor in an apartment where no one lived."
The SBI says that these conversations with Kulinich were recorded on his iPhone by Sivkovych himself. These files were then transferred to the FSB, but it is unclear how they appeared in the Kyiv apartment. However, a hard drive was found in Kulinich's car, on which there were 7 files completely identical to those found in an empty apartment. The same documents, by the way, were found in Tierientieva's possession, the sources added.
Despite the fact that Kulinich's lawyers are going to deny the possibility of using the flash drive as evidence without a primary medium, the defendant himself still stated in court that the information on the flash drive concerns not only him but also President Zelenskyy, his wife, the head of the President's Office Andrii Yermak, Serhii Shefir - assistant to the president, Prime Minister Shmyhal, Oksana Markarova, who is the ambassador to the United States, ex-head of the Security Service of Ukraine Bakanov. Like, if these materials are valid in relation to me, then why are they not being investigated in relation to other persons involved in the flash drive?
Meanwhile, our sources assure us that Kulinich uses this flash drive, despite the absence of any resonant materials on it, as a bargaining tool. They say that he even asked to be released to house arrest, and in case of refusal, to start reading the recordings of conversations in court.
For example, in October, during a court hearing, Kulinich read out one of the "documents" of a flash drive about how Bakanov's brother-in-law and Zelenskyy's friend Oleksandr Beliaiev were being prepared for negotiations in Moscow on the release of captured Ukrainian sailors, including at the level of Defense Minister Shoigu.
It should be noted that from the very first meetings, Kulinich chose counterattacks for his defense. In particular, an appeal to the fact that Andrii Portnov is behind his case, against whom Bakanov told Kulinich to investigate the case. And secondly, it is so covered up that Sivkovych, accused of treason, himself has been working for Zelenskyy's headquarters since 2019.
According to Kulinich, with the mediation of Sivkovych, Zelenskyy's headquarters hired a Washington lobbying firm to "improve his reputation."
Interestingly, information about Signal Group was first published by Radio Liberty in 2019. And Zelenskyy denied it at the time.
-There are a lot of materials on the flash drive, not only on Beliaiev. The flash drive contains materials on the activities of the president, Yermak, Markarova, Shmyhal, Maliuska, and Bakanov. Beliaiev, as an adviser to the head of the Service, was also at the same time the executor of the president's instructions," Kulinich told reporters in court.
- Did you personally know Beliaiev?
-Yes.
- Did you know about his cooperation with representatives of the Russian Federation?
- I did not know about his cooperation with representatives of the Russian Federation. I met Beliaiev during his participation in President Zelenskyy's campaign.
-Did he participate there as who?
-As one of the organizers of the presidential campaign, who participated in key negotiations. Both on the territory of Ukraine and abroad.
-And in Russia?
-I can only talk about the ones I know about. In this situation, we are talking about Germany and Austria.
- Can you confirm that a meeting between Beliaiev and Shoigu was being prepared?
-Yes, but not by me.
-And he, as an adviser, to whom was he more subordinate? Because it seems to me that he was more friends with Zelenskyy than with Bakanov.
-I confirm your information.
-I won't ask who the Okhotnil (Hunter-ed.) is, but where should the Okhotnil (Hunter-ed.) be appointed?
-Look, I'll tell you this way. It's like the story of Buratino. The investigation writes that it is one person. And now it turns out that it's different. Probably, there are already enough fairy-tale images.
- We know that before Dubinskyi they said that it was a different person. Which version do you believe in?
-Why did they close the meeting? If only Zelenskyy were shown what these materials are about him, about his family members, about Bakanov. And if we take as a basis the version that the FSB collected information, then the question is, where did Maliuk get it – under the fence, not being an employee of the Security Service? Where did you collect them? He simply implemented a scheme that is directed and has its purpose.
And Zelenskyy does not know yet, but there is already a decision of the Pecherskyi Court, where he is a defendant under Article 111 (high treason). Lawyers, aren't they?
- Have you met with Sivkovych abroad?
-No. I'll say it again. I had contact with Sivkovych only during the 2019 election campaign.
-And in what status and why did you contact him?
-And he was involved in the presidential and parliamentary campaign in 2019. Not me.
- Not Nadoshа, but Sivkovych?
- Nadosha was already involved by Sivkovych, in which the head of the Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) also participated.
-Do you mean Duma?
-Yes.
- And when did you meet Bakanov?
-While I was working at the election headquarters.
-And what was Beliaiev's role?
-Communication.
-What do you mean? It is possible to coordinate the work of the headquarters. You can communicate with the media. As far as I understand, he did not do this work.
-And relations with foreign partners, and contacts on financing.
-Was Russian money involved in financing Zelenskyy's company?
-I'll tell you so. Were there any resources involved outside the election fund? Yes, they did. There was no Russian money in my direction. But if they choose Sivkovych's version, and he participated in the organization of funding, then it turns out that the FSB financed Zelenskyy's campaign. Is the logic like this?
***
Law enforcement officers say that Kulinich is trying in vain to create the impression that the case was closed by journalists so that Zelenskyy's sins would not come to light.
"There is no Zelensky's voice on the flash drive. And there is no compromising evidence either. There is, for example, one document on Yermak and the VAT refund scheme, but this is an example of PSYOP, which was just dispersed by the FSB. There, even the numbers simply do not add up when checking the facts," says an interlocutor among law enforcement officers.
"According to Beliaiev. Yes, there is a document there, but it is quoted incorrectly. There are at least 4 errors there. Belyaev really wanted to use the situation to his advantage. But everyone realized that he was just a swindler. No one is talking to him now," the source said. And he adds that if the documents describe some plans of the Russian special services, it does not mean that all of these plans were implemented. So, there is no "betrayal".
Vice Speaker Oleksandr Korniienko commented to Censor.NET on the participation of Kulinich and Sivkovych in Zelenskyy's headquarters: "I am not aware of the participation of the above-mentioned gentlemen, I did not meet them in the headquarters where I worked, I did not have contacts."
At the same time, it should be understood that the headquarters was not alone, and this is even evidenced by the story of Bihus.Info, which was released before the elections.
"Somewhere before the first round, Ivan Hennadiiovych flew to the States and returned "changed". He started to disappear for a long time, then he got a bodyguard and there were rumors that he would be the head of the SSU," says another of the interlocutors of the publication, who was involved in the work of the headquarters at the time.
Now the most interesting thing is why Bakanov has not yet been interrogated in the Kulinich case. And actually about where he was at the beginning of the war.
Now, the story that Sivkovych worked for Zelenskyy's headquarters may become a convenient argument that will be constantly used against the president by his opponents. And it doesn't matter whether this information is confirmed or not.
Tetiana Nikolaienko, Censor.NET
