"HAMMERS OR ACID?" All details of NABU and SAPO’s special operation "Carthage". Names and details
On the afternoon of November 4, NABU and SAPO announce that they have exposed another criminal organisation. The suspects paid bribes to senior officials at the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), the National Police and the Prosecutor General’s Office in exchange for protection for fraudulent call centres, drug sales and the production of counterfeit euros. In the recordings, they discussed how to maim journalist Denys Bihus and Azov veteran and former prisoner of war Viktor "Leleka" Lakhno. Dozens of searches are underway across the country. A serving SSU general and several other law enforcement officers have been detained.
THE KEY FIGURES
NABU and SAPO have released their latest exposé film, "Operation Carthage. The sequel". They report that they have exposed a criminal organisation specialising in running so-called call centres, drug distribution and other crimes. Oleksandr Abakumov, head of a NABU detective unit, outlines the criminal organisation’s membership but gives no names. Through their sources, Censor.NET and other media outlets have identified almost all the participants whom the anti-corruption agencies refer to by aliases.
According to NABU, the criminal organisation included:
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Criminal — founder and leader. According to Censor.NET, this is Andrii Osipov, who has three previous convictions. He is described as one of the key participants.
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Mexican — founder and leader of the transnational Khimprom cartel. Censor.NET has established that he holds Russian and Ukrainian citizenship and fled to Ukraine in 2016. He has also been wanted in Ukraine since 2019. This is Russian citizen Yehor Burkin, also known as Yehor Levchenko.
- Boxer and Pasha — Criminals’ subordinates who did the dirty work. The Mezha Anti-Corruption Centre has established that Boxer is Vitalii Serhiiovych Rybalko, an athlete from Zhytomyr region, founder of the Udar-Korosten Boxing Sports Club, and a subject of criminal proceedings (kidnapping, extortion, unlawful seizure of businesses and property).
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Price — a police officer responsible for providing cover for the call centres’ operations. According to Censor.NET, this is Volodymyr Tsenov, acting head of the National Police’s Department of Strategic Investigations.
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Consultant — a police officer responsible for security, providing cover for criminal activity and coordinating specific areas of that activity. According to Censor.NET, this is Oleksandr Demianchuk, deputy head of a section within the Criminal Investigation Directorate of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Kyiv region.
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Akim — a senior SSU official who shielded the organisation from scrutiny by his SSU colleagues. According to media reports, this is Major General Serhii Duka, first deputy head of the SSU’s Department for the Protection of National Statehood.
KHIMPROM: WHAT IS IT?
Khimprom is a transnational criminal group specialising in the production and sale of synthetic drugs, as well as running networks of fraudulent call centres. Khimprom is considered something of a conduit for mephedrone and alpha-PVP ("salts"), drugs that effectively make users aggressive and cause highly unusual and erratic behaviour.
Khimprom’s founder and leader is Russian and Ukrainian citizen Yehor Burkin (as named in his Russian documents), also known as Yehor Levchenko (as named in his Ukrainian documents). He is also listed as Mexican in the anti-corruption agencies’ recordings. He was arrested in Russia but later released, after which he fled to Ukraine. In Ukraine, he is also known for donating large sums to support individual military units. He is hiding in Mexico.
Burkin/Levchenko/Mexican is wanted in Ukraine and is a subject of several criminal proceedings. In December 2023, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy imposed personal sanctions on him. Yet this apparently did not prevent Burkin/Levchenko/Mexican from conducting his criminal activities together with senior officials in various Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, including the SSU.
In 2023, the SSU announced with much fanfare that it had conducted several major special operations targeting members of the Russian criminal organisation Khimprom, which worked in tandem with Russian intelligence services. At the time, the SSU said it had detained 89 drug dealers, secured prison sentences for 34 active members, shut down drug laboratories, and prevented "the establishment of cross-border supply routes for illicit substances to the EU".
Now, three years later, NABU and SAPO say that Mexican (Yehor Burkin/Levchenko - Ed.) organised his illegal business so that SSU officers provided protection for it.
In 2023, Detector Media reported that Burkin/Levchenko himself had told Odesa blogger Stas Dombrovskyi in an interview that he was a businessman whose competitors were trying to destroy his reputation. He said he was in Mexico and, to prove that he had no involvement in drug trafficking, had launched a campaign called "Catch a drug dealer", promising rewards to anyone who detained drug couriers or producers. Several leading media outlets covered the campaign at the time, while Anatolii Anatolich, Zlata Ohnievich, Iryna Fedyshyn and Natalia Mohylevska helped promote it.
According to NABU detectives in the exposé film, the Russian drug syndicate Khimprom strengthened its influence in Ukraine and abroad after the start of the full-scale invasion. Its leader, Burkin/Levchenko, needed to secure support from law enforcement officers in Ukraine and brought in a man nicknamed Criminal. Media outlets identified him as Andrii Osipov. "Criminal had previously been sentenced to 4.5 and 6 years in prison for robbery, unlawful vehicle seizure, and hooliganism. Nevertheless, this did not prevent him from maintaining close ties with law enforcement officers who, like him, were born, grew up, and began their careers in Zhytomyr region," says Oleksandr Abakumov, head of a NABU detective unit.
In the recordings featured in the anti-corruption agencies’ film, Criminal (Andrii Osipov - Ed.) says: "The Service is run by a f#cking competent guy, for real. Not those fucking little morons, f#ck. At least, f#ck, seriously, God willing, everything will be all right. Things will get sorted out."
He then talks about a "hooligan from Korostyshiv" who has now taken up a senior position.
This likely refers to Lieutenant General Vasyl Maliuk, the former head of the SSU. He comes from Korostyshiv in Zhytomyr region. Osipov then discusses assignments for Baldy, who "went to Dnipro". They add that, in their view, he went to Dnipro with a task: "Maybe to squeeze money out of people", because "this isn’t pushing around those suckers in Zhytomyr".
This likely refers to SSU Brigadier General Serhii Lysak. Until 2022, he headed the SSU Directorate in Zhytomyr region, and from 2022 to 2023, he headed the SSU Directorate in Dnipropetrovsk region. In 2023, he was appointed head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration. In 2025, he was appointed head of the Odesa City Military Administration, a position he still holds. This information has yet to be confirmed.
SAPO prosecutor Mykola Karas says that Criminal (Andrii Osipov - Ed.) used his close ties with senior SSU officials and became a co-organiser of the criminal organisation between 2022 and autumn 2025. "Criminal and Mexican agreed to join forces to expand their criminal activities on mutually beneficial terms," Karas adds.
The anti-corruption investigators also say that, during the full-scale war, Burkin/Levchenko/Mexican "continued to run his criminal business and cooperated with representatives of Russia’s FSB".
In the recordings, Mexican says he works with FSB representatives. He even gives a specific surname: Abdrafikov. Open sources indicate that Rustam Abdrafikov headed the 8th Department of Directorate K of Russia’s FSB until summer 2026; this directorate deals with organised crime group leaders in Russia. Russian media reported that it was during Abdrafikov’s tenure that "only those thieves-in-law who were completely loyal to and needed by the FSB were allowed to remain at large in Russia".
According to NABU detectives, Criminal’s role in the scheme was to ensure that law enforcement officers raised no objections to the criminal organisation’s activities. Dzerkalo Tyzhnia reported extensively on Criminal (Andrii Osipov - Ed.) back in summer 2026. The article said that NABU and SAPO suspected Andrii Osipov of extorting one million dollars from a Russian citizen. In exchange, the suspect promised to "sort out the issue" of criminal prosecution and extradition to Russia. "The name of Vasyl Maliuk himself surfaced in the case files. Specifically, according to one of the individuals involved in the case, $200,000 of the sum demanded by Osipov was allegedly intended personally for the then first deputy head of the SSU. Investigators currently have no evidence that money was passed to Maliuk," Inna Viedernikova wrote in her article "The Degeneration of power. How Zelenskyy topped out, and machinery of government bottomed out". According to her sources, Osipov "was a man in Vasyl Maliuk’s orbit and later came under the wing of Generals Serhii Duka and Anton Kravchuk. After Maliuk’s dismissal from the SSU, Duka and Kravchuk themselves quickly adapted to Poklad". Censor.NET also confirmed this information with its own sources familiar with the internal dynamics at the SSU.
SEARCHES AND DETENTIONS
On the morning of November 4, NABU and SAPO arrived to search the premises of General Serhii Duka, first deputy head of the SSU’s Department for the Protection of National Statehood. At the same time, the anti-corruption agencies reported on social media: "A senior SSU official is threatening to use a weapon and obstructing the search. In addition, SDU special forces personnel have arrived at the search site."
Ukrainska Pravda publishes photos and video from the scene. In the video, a Ukrainska Pravda camera operator says that detectives arrived to conduct a search at 5:30 a.m. but met resistance. "People armed with automatic carbines came out of the house and threatened them, holding them at gunpoint for the first three hours," a voice says off camera. "At around 8:30 a.m., the search finally began. SSU personnel were called to the scene as though they were some private security firm protecting their boss’s interests."
According to Dzerkalo Tyzhnia’s sources, in addition to Duka, NABU and SAPO also searched the premises of Colonel Anton Kravchuk, head of the SSU’s Main Directorate of Internal Security, and Oleksandr Kovalchuk, first deputy head of Main Directorate D within the Department for the Protection of National Statehood.
Despite SSU special forces personnel arriving at the site of the search at Duka’s premises, the Service’s press office says that "the SSU provides full support and facilitates all necessary procedural actions in these criminal proceedings". The press release states that Acting SSU Head Oleksandr Poklad dismissed two senior officials who had become subjects of the investigation.
Poklad himself says he has spoken with the heads of NABU and SAPO and that they have "clear and constructive cooperation". SSU Major General Poklad also addresses Yehor Burkin/Levchenko/Mexican: "I suggest that he come to Ukraine and surrender to law enforcement agencies. Otherwise, we will find him ourselves, wherever he may be hiding. We have experience."
SSU General Serhii Duka was detained on November 4.
Vitalii Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre, calls General Serhii Duka "a general in the SSU’s rear-echelon — corrupt — wing". He recalls that Duka’s father-in-law and mother-in-law obtained Russian passports in Crimea in 2022 and registered their family farm, Edelweiss, in Russian registers in December 2022. In 2024, Shabunin writes, Duka’s mother-in-law gave her daughter an Audi Q8 and an apartment in Odesa worth approximately $100,000. "Exorbitantly expensive gifts from a mother-in-law are a classic feature of life in the SSU’s rear-echelon — corrupt — wing," the Anti-Corruption Action Centre’s head concludes.
Censor.NET’s sources report that Volodymyr Tsenov, acting head of the National Police’s Department of Strategic Investigations, Oleksandr Demianchuk, deputy head of a section within the Criminal Investigation Directorate in Kyiv region, and (Boxer) Vitalii Rybalko were also detained on November 4.
The National Police say they are assisting NABU’s investigative actions. The police officers subject to procedural measures have been suspended from duty, and an internal investigation is underway.
Let us examine the specific crimes that NABU and SAPO attribute to Osipov and Burkin-Levchenko’s criminal organisation.
ALL CENTRES
Call centres are a network of scam operations whose employees con people out of their money. They also operate in EU countries, which have repeatedly informed Ukraine’s leadership about this.
In the anti-corruption agencies’ film, detective Oleksandr Abakumov says that in autumn 2025, Mexican (Yehor Burkin/Levchenko - Ed.) ran a network of such call centres. "The call centres’ activities could not have gone unnoticed by officers of the SSU, the National Police and the prosecutor’s office. Using his connections, Criminal (Andrii Osipov - Ed.) quickly established contacts and channels for passing bribes to all these agencies," the detective says. According to him, the standard bribe paid to law enforcement officers was $7,000 per month per call centre. Payments were made in cryptocurrency. Investigators established that at least 52 call centres paid this tribute, employing at least 2,700 people across the country.
According to investigators, Price was responsible for "sorting things out" within the police, receiving money for "turning a blind eye" to specific call centres’ operations. Censor.NET’s sources say this is Volodymyr Tsenov, acting head of the National Police’s Department of Strategic Investigations.
Investigators also established that the law enforcement officers involved in the crime tipped off call centre representatives about upcoming searches whenever other law enforcement officers decided to initiate them.
Investigators also released an excerpt from a conversation between Criminal (Andrii Osipov - Ed.) and Akim (SSU General Serhii Duka - Ed.). In this excerpt, Duka suggests suspending the call centres’ operations, moving to safe houses and "going guerrilla". The criminal Andrii Osipov addresses SSU General Serhii Duka as "brother". To be fair, however, he calls many people that.
After this, certain call centres suspended their operations.
U420. AN ATTEMPT TO BRIBE A MINISTER
U420 is a chain of shops in Ukraine that, according to NABU and SAPO’s Carthage investigation, sold narcotic substances disguised as legal "souvenirs". According to investigators, the owner is Mexican (Yehor Burkin/Levchenko - Ed.), who also heads the Khimprom drug cartel. Investigators say Criminal (Andrii Osipov - Ed.) held a stake in the U420 chain and received a share of its turnover every month.
These shops sold drugs — psychoactive substances. Their composition was altered to technically circumvent the legal ban on cannabis. The investigation states: "If the composition of the solution (the substance sold in the shops - Ed.) is declared illegal, the formula will have to be changed and all existing stocks destroyed. To ensure that the business can operate unhindered, Mexican asks Criminal to find a way to bribe a minister."
The surnames or first names of the two ministers discussed by the suspected criminals are obscured in the recordings. But listening at a slower speed reveals that the first minister’s surname begins with "K" and ends in "-ko". Ihor Klymenko served as Ukraine’s interior minister from February 7, 2023, to August 3, 2026. He is now Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council. It is impossible to make out the second minister’s first name, surname, or nickname.
Mexican says that one of the ministers needs to be told: "Don’t do that again, it hits us f#cking hard, brother." After saying this, he sends the person he is speaking to a screenshot of Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 146 of February 5, 2026, "On amendments to the list of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors". Through this document, the Cabinet adds to and amends the lists of substances subject to state control.
The resolution itself can be found on the Ukrainian parliament’s website. It was signed by Ukraine’s then prime minister, Yuliia Svyrydenko.
Mexican (Yehor Burkin/Levchenko - Ed.) asks the state not to change the chemical formula covered by the drug ban. Detectives release a file containing the request sent by Mexican. The surnames in it are blurred but can still be deciphered.
The document states: "The main request: that Klymenko stop sending requests to Liashko V. K. to add new entries covering the formulas the company works with to the list of banned formulas." In one excerpt, Mexican asks the person he is speaking to to ensure that "neither the interior ministers nor the health ministers put obstacles in our way". Viktor Liashko has been Ukraine’s health minister since 2021. Mexican explicitly states his willingness to bribe the minister whose surname begins with "K". As for the minister whose surname begins with "L", "there is no need to sort things out".
We stress that the mention of ministers in these recordings does not in itself mean they were involved in corruption schemes. Their voices do not feature in the recordings released by NABU and SAPO. However, according to investigators, someone allegedly passed Criminal a proposal purportedly from Ihor Klymenko.
On the evening of November 4, one of Censor.NET’s sources claimed that searches had also been conducted at the premises of Ihor Klymenko and former Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko. The National Security and Defence Council denied to us that a search had been conducted at Klymenko’s premises. We were unable to confirm or refute the information about searches at Svyrydenko’s premises through other sources.
Detective Oleksandr Abakumov concludes: "Thus, members of the criminal organisation were prepared to bribe not only ministers but also other influential individuals capable of resolving matters at state level." SAPO prosecutor Mykola Karas says that no bribery took place: "The bribery plan was never carried out, partly because of a Bihus.Info journalistic investigation whose preparation became known to the individuals involved."
BIHUS. PLANS FOR A VIOLENT REPRISAL
In the anti-corruption agencies’ recordings, Mexican (Yehor Burkin/Levchenko - Ed.) tells the person he is speaking to that investigative journalist Denys Bihus is preparing to release an investigation into the illegal activities of shops selling drugs. He asks for advice on whether to try to bribe the journalist. If the journalist refuses, he says, they should "f#ck him up physically" and carry out arson attacks.
After news emerged that Bihus was preparing his investigation, law enforcement officers conducted searches for show, according to investigators, but tipped off the criminal organisation beforehand. In the recordings, an unidentified speaker says: "The minister called a meeting and ordered a show to be put on for Bihus, for the public, for journalists. Tentatively, we’ll have searches on the 26th and 27th, with minimal stock on site. I’ve warned all the guys; they know."
Mexican (Yehor Burkin/Levchenko - Ed.) proposes throwing acid over Denys Bihus and "f#cking killing him". He also proposes luring the journalist to the Dominican Republic, Cambodia, or Mexico to "lock him up" or "f#ck him up", to "turn him into an idiot".
Mexican also considers whether he can "f#ck up" blogger Ihor Lachenkov. The speakers also discuss whether to involve fugitive blogger Anatolii Sharii in whitewashing their criminal activities.
VETERAN LELEKA
After the release of the Bihus.Info investigation, various activists and NGOs also took up the issue. In a conversation with Criminal (Andrii Osipov - Ed.), Mexican boasts that they have dealt with everyone except a war veteran who fought in Mariupol and was held captive. This is Azov veteran Viktor (Leleka) Lakhno, who spoke out against the U420 chain. Yehor Burkin/Levchenko asks for advice on how best to brutalise the veteran — throw acid over him or beat him to death with hammers. Osipov advises beating him to death with hammers.
Viktor Lakhno himself said on his Instagram page that he had been offered money. "I received offers to take money. Most people in my position would have taken it. I received threats from them, and those threats were real. Mexican controls drug trafficking in several European and CIS countries and is discussing an attack on me with SSU representatives. I contacted law enforcement agencies. No one responded in any way."
Azov veteran Viktor (Leleka) Lakhno is also known for throwing an egg at Andrii Yermak, the former head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, in May 2026, and pelting MP Mykola Tyshchenko with tomatoes in July 2026.
REMOVING TORHALO FROM OFFICE
In another episode of the NABU and SAPO investigation, Mexican (Yehor Burkin/Levchenko - Ed.) offers a $2 million bribe to have "Tor…" removed from office. According to Censor.NET, this refers to Dmytro Torhalo, head of the National Police’s Department for Combating Drug Crime.
Torhalo is known to have previously spoken out publicly against the sale of cannabis in shops. He stressed that the drug trade consists of entire business structures that constantly adapt to new conditions and seek routes for supplying drugs and precursors.
"We do not view these offenders simply as groups of individuals committing crimes involving illicit drug trafficking. These are genuine business structures for which our country has always been a profitable transit hub, given that it is effectively located in the centre of the European continent," the Mezha Anti-Corruption Centre quotes Torhalo as saying. But the investigative activists then ask: "Yet, as we know, Torhalo remained in office. Did he become compliant?"
UKRAINE’S PROSECUTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE
Members of the criminal organisation also say they are in constant talks with the Prosecutor General’s Office about possible searches, including personally with "the General". This likely refers to Ukraine’s former Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko. The speakers also have information about searches being prepared by the Prosecutor General’s Office.
The press office of Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office subsequently reported that searches had been conducted at U420 shops.
PARLIAMENT. ARAKHAMIIA
According to investigators, Criminal and Mexican also sought contacts in parliament to safeguard their "business" through relevant legislation, including the full legalisation of cannabis in Ukraine. Criminal (Andrii Osipov - Ed.) says he has been promised a meeting with the head of a parliamentary faction whose surname begins with "Arakh…". This clearly refers to Davyd Arakhamiia, head of the Servant of the People faction. No evidence has been made public that the meeting took place or that Arakhamiia knew about the intentions of those involved.
COUNTERFEIT EUROS
The NABU and SAPO film also covers the production of counterfeit euros. According to investigators, members of the criminal organisation set up this operation during 2026. "For this purpose, they equipped a workshop at a secret location with specialised printing equipment and holographic matrices. The counterfeits reproduced security features to make them difficult to distinguish from genuine banknotes. The key figures were Criminal, Pasha and Consultant, a serving police officer," the anti-corruption investigators say.
Investigators describe Pasha as a subordinate of Mexican (Yehor Burkin/Levchenko - Ed.). Censor.NET has so far been unable to establish his identity. According to Censor.NET, Consultant is Oleksandr Demianchuk, deputy head of a section within the Criminal Investigation Directorate in Kyiv region.
NABU and SAPO included footage of the counterfeit currency production in their film.
In the recordings, Consultant (police officer Oleksandr Demianchuk - Ed.) discusses how to improve the quality of the counterfeit euros.
CRIMES AGAINST LIFE AND HEALTH
In their film, the anti-corruption investigators say that members of the criminal organisation were involved in torture for hire, kidnappings, extorting millions of dollars from people held in basements, and other violent crimes. Law enforcement officers supplied them with information from databases, access to Safe City cameras and materials from searches. Consultant (police officer Oleksandr Demianchuk - Ed.) was among those leaking information.
Another figure also appears in this episode: Boxer. The Mezha Anti-Corruption Centre has established that Boxer is Vitalii Serhiiovych Rybalko, an athlete from Zhytomyr region, founder of the Udar-Korosten Boxing Sports Club and a subject of criminal proceedings.
Detective Oleksandr Abakumov gives a specific example: "This happened in July 2026 near the exit of a sports club in central Kyiv. Three attackers wearing masks and tactical clothing waited for the victim to leave the sports club, then attacked him." The man is beaten with a metal pipe. Investigators show footage of the attack.
According to NABU and SAPO, the criminals tracked the victim using Safe City cameras, which they accessed through an SSU officer’s account.
Detective Abakumov also says: "This was not an isolated incident but a systematic business built on violence. The group carried out similar contracts even abroad." The film includes videos that Pasha sent to those who commissioned the attacks. The footage shows unidentified people in black tactical gear brutally beating people.
Criminal (Andrii Osipov - Ed.) writes in response: "Kitties, the main thing is that the scumbag is properly smashed up, because I’m worried he might not have had enough." Pasha assures him that the man was beaten badly: "His legs were already lying there like limp rags."
The law enforcement officers protecting the criminals even forwarded them investigation materials from their foreign counterparts.
AKIM
Oleksandr Abakumov, head of the NABU detective team, draws particular attention to the SSU representative, Akim. This is SSU Major General Serhii Duka, first deputy head of the SSU’s Department for the Protection of National Statehood, who was detained on the morning of November 4.
Abakumov says: "Mexican felt beyond the reach of law enforcement, while Criminal felt untouchable because he had powerful protection from the SSU. Akim knew about his activities and helped resolve issues not only within the SSU but also in the Prosecutor General’s Office. When the SSU, Akim, and his colleagues are looking after you, there are almost no problems that cannot be solved. There are insiders everywhere: help with obtaining a declaration of unfitness for military service, obtaining vehicle passes, a driver and bodyguards with SSU identification, even personal tokens of favour, such as a knife as a gift from the SSU."
According to investigators, Akim (SSU General Serhii Duka - Ed.) also helped the criminal organisation establish a "working relationship" with the Prosecutor General’s Office. In one episode, Criminal (Andrii Osipov - Ed.) sends Akim a copy of a resolution appointing a team of prosecutors in criminal proceedings concerning an investigation into the U420 retail chain. The first name and surname of the deputy prosecutor general who signed the resolution are blurred in the materials. However, the length of the first name and surname can be made out.
Criminal refers to this person as "she". Only one person fits these descriptions: Mariia Vdovychenko, former first deputy to former Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.
Akim (SSU General Serhii Duka - Ed.) replies: "Hey, bro. Spoke to her today. She’s lined up a meeting for me tomorrow." It is known that earlier, during the first phase of Operation Carthage, NABU and SAPO searched Mariia Vdovychenko’s office at Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office.
Akim and Criminal also discuss conflicts with the National Police and the appointment of various law enforcement officers to different positions. The investigation further indicates that SSU General Serhii Duka helped arrange for Andrii Osipov, who has three previous convictions, to visit the SSU headquarters building on July 23, 2026.
FORMER PROSECUTOR GENERAL KRAVCHENKO
NABU and SAPO end their film with information that the individuals involved in this case had links to the attempt to strip NABU and SAPO of their independence in summer 2025.
Ukraine’s now-former Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, who is hiding in Vienna, also responded to the film. He is also a potential subject of the Carthage case. Kravchenko calls NABU and SAPO’s actions "political revenge and a systematic attempt to destabilise the situation in the country". "NABU is conducting searches at the premises of three senior SSU officials whose units were involved in investigating criminal proceedings against NABU Director Semen Kryvonos and people close to SAPO Head Oleksandr Klymenko, including members of his family. I will make public all information concerning these proceedings," Kravchenko writes on social media.
REFORM
A Censor.NET source with close knowledge of the situation within the SSU says he is not surprised by the new details from NABU and SAPO. He says this is all a consequence of the unreformed system within the Security Service of Ukraine. "The ‘Kashnyky’ and ‘economists’ (representatives of the relevant structural units - Ed.) keep terrorising businesses, just as they did before. Just as they have for years. They’ve simply been caught this time," our source says. In his view, corruption will persist as long as the SSU retains functions that do not belong within an intelligence service, such as criminal investigations. Our source also recalls that reforming the Security Service of Ukraine is one of NATO’s requirements on the path to joining the Alliance.
Iryna Romaliiska
