Zaluzhny spoke about the SBU searches of his office in 2022, after which he called Yermak with a warning

Former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and current Ambassador of Ukraine to the United Kingdom Valeriy Zaluzhny stated that in the fall of 2022, "dozens" of security officers from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) tried to search his office.

He said this in an interview with the Associated Press (AP).

According to Zaluzhny, this happened after he left a tense meeting at President Volodymyr Zelenskyʼs headquarters and returned to his office in Kyiv.

A few hours later, the SBU officers arrived to search the premises. At that time, more than a dozen British officers were there, Zaluzhny says.

He claims that the Ukrainian agents did not say what they were looking for, and that he did not allow them to look at documents and computers.

According to Zaluzhny, this raid was a clear threat. In the presence of security forces, he called the then head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak and sternly warned: "I will repel this attack, because I know how to fight."

Zaluzhny then called the then-SBU chief Vasyl Malyuk to find out what was going on. According to the former chief, Malyuk said he knew nothing about the raid and promised to look into the situation.

Zaluzhny later learned that SBU had applied to a district court in Kyiv two days before the incident for a search warrant at the same address. According to a court document obtained by AP, the search was for a strip club allegedly run by a criminal organization.

However, the strip club mentioned in the statement was closed down at that location before the full-scale Russian invasion. Zaluzhny believes that the search warrant was a pretext and that SBU could hardly have mistakenly identified the location of the countryʼs main military command center.

• Zaluzhny was the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from 2021 to 2024. He was dismissed from his post in February 2024. In March of the same year, President Volodymyr Zelensky approved the candidacy of Valeriy Zaluzhny for the position of Ambassador of Ukraine to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. He officially began his duties as Ambassador on July 11.

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