President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced personnel changes amid an investigation by NABU and SAPO into the activities of a criminal organisation, with certain SBU and National Police officers suspected of involvement. He said this at a meeting with journalists on 13 November.
He noted that neither former Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, nor his current successor Ivan Vyhivskyi, nor the acting head of the SBU Oleksandr Poklad “have anything to do with this”. The relevant information was passed to him by the anti-corruption agencies.
“As for the names that can be heard on the tapes — Klymenko and so on — I asked the anti-corruption officers directly: ‘Do you have anything on them?’ — ‘No. Neither Liashko, nor Klymenko, nor Arakhamia has anything to do with any contacts with these people’,” he said.
The President said that the ‘Khimprom’ organisation is already operating in Poland and is trying to start activities in Germany.
“I am sure this line of work is definitely not happening without the support of intelligence services — and not only Russian ones. These are people with an unlimited financial flow who try to ‘buy’ people in various institutions for years — and not only in Ukraine,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes.
Context
On 4 November, NABU and SAPO reported that they had uncovered another criminal organisation, whose activities were investigated during the special operation ‘Carthage’. The first organisation was uncovered in early September. It operated within the Prosecutor General’s Office and was engaged in ensuring the operation of call centres in exchange for regular illicit benefits, as well as laundering illegally obtained funds.
The second organisation brought together several law enforcement agencies and representatives of the criminal underworld. NABU claims that certain representatives of the SBU, the National Police and the Prosecutor General’s Office were involved. The organiser is a citizen convicted three times, who used long-standing ties with fellow law enforcement officers from Zhytomyr Region for criminal activities.
Another key suspect, ‘the Mexican’, has a long criminal past. According to the investigation’s version, he was involved in distributing drugs through the U420 chain of shops, which operated openly in various cities across Ukraine. The chain was shut down after an investigation by Bihus.info: journalists found that the products contained banned substances. In NABU-intercepted conversations, members of the organisation discussed taking revenge on Denys Bihus — dousing him with acid. They also discussed reprisals against opinion leaders.
Another area of the organisation’s activity was counterfeiting euros. The criminals set up a real printing workshop where they produced counterfeit banknotes.
They were also involved in contract torture and kidnapping. Not only in Ukraine, but also abroad.