The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) suspects frormer National Security and Defence Council Deputy Secretary Volodymyr Sivkovych of treason. According to investigators, he cooperated with the russian Federal Security Service (FSB).
The SBI has also issued notices of suspicion for three FSB officers who are suspected of espionage, the agency's press centre has said.
It transpired that the 5th Service of the FSB set up a criminal organization to conduct intelligence and subversive activities against Ukraine. It was headed by russian national Igor Chumakov. Its members included Aleksandr Chulindin and Marina Terentyeva.
The FSB officers also involved representatives of the former authorities in Ukraine in criminal activities. They fled to Moscow in 2014, in particular Sivkovych. Apart from him, Oleh Kulinych, a former chief of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) directorate in Crimea, cooperated with the russians. He involved other Ukrainian citizens in the illegal activities.
Sivkovych coordinated the Ukrainian part of the group. The traitors collected and handed over to the russians information which was a state secret. Their work also consisted of influencing personnel decisions in the Ukrainian security agencies.
To cover up his activities, Sivkovych set up a "political office" in Moscow.
Sivkovych is suspected of the following: "establishment, management and participation in a criminal association or criminal organization", and "high treason". If Sivkovych's guilt is proven in court, he might face a maximum of 12 to 15 years' imprisonment with confiscation of property.
On 14 December 2013, Sivkovych was named among those responsible for the crackdown and beating of Euro-Maydan protesters (along with Kyiv police chief Valeriy Koryak and Kyiv city state administration head Mykhaylo Popov). On the same day, he was suspended as deputy chairman of the National Security and Defence Council because the Prosecutor-General's Office of Ukraine announced that he was suspected of committing a crime under Article 365(2) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (exceeding authority or official powers; in connection with the dispersal of a peaceful student protest in support of the European sssociation of Ukraine on 30 November 2013).
Since 20 January 2022, he has been under sanctions by the US Treasury Department.