Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko does not rule out that the searches of the National Guard Commander Oleksandr Pivnenko by NABU and SAPO could have taken place under the influence of Russian special services.
He said this at a meeting with journalists, reports a Babel correspondent.
"The accusation of the commander of the National Guard of embezzling UAH 400 million was not confirmed. Given the facts of cooperation with the enemy of NABU officials, I do not exclude that this was a direct instruction from the Russian special services," the minister said.
And he added that Ruslan Maghamedrasulov, suspected of working for Russia and one of the heads of the interregional departments of the NABU detectives, could have been involved in this.
In early May, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported the suspension of six National Guard officials. Later, the NGU press service denied that Commander Pivnenko had been suspended from duty.
The Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutorʼs Office and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine refused to comment on the progress of the investigations into top officials of the National Guard, explaining this by the fact that the agencies inform about the results of the investigation only when investigators and prosecutors have enough evidence to declare suspicions.
At the same time, Ihor Klymenko emphasized that the NABU investigations included people who had already been dismissed from the National Guard and were awaiting suspicion.
"These people who were involved in corruption have been dismissed from their positions. And they are probably waiting for suspicion. People from combat units, from brigades, have already been appointed to their positions, because they understand responsibility... In addition, an internal security unit has been created in the National Guard, which should control procurement processes so that there are no abuses," the minister added.
What preceded the law
On July 21, law enforcement officers conducted mass searches at the NABU and SAPO. In particular, they detained one of the heads of the Bureauʼs interregional detective departments Ruslan Maghamedrasulov. According to the investigation, the official was in close contact with the fugitive MP from the banned “OPZZh” party Fedir Khrystenko (he was reported suspected of treason), who is connected to the Russian special services.
NABU reported almost 70 searches involving 15 of its employees. They stated that most of them were due to the employeesʼ involvement in a traffic accident (three employees were later reported as suspicious for this).
SBU also said that it had exposed a mole in the NABU who was spying for FSB. At the same time, the Bureau says that back in 2023, the special service was informed about a possible mole, but at that time SBU did not reveal the involvement of the bureau employee in espionage.
NABU and SAPO also accused the Security Service of potentially revealing confidential information about the investigation during investigative actions. SBU called these statements manipulations.
And on July 22, SBU reported the discovery of new leaks of secret data in the NABU — during searches at Khrystenkoʼs house, confidential NABU documents were found.
After studying the materials of the Security Service of Ukraine and the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office, the court arrested two NABU employees — an employee of the NABU Central Office, who, according to the investigation, works in the closed unit "D-2", and one of the heads of the interregional departments of the NABU detectives Ruslan Maghamedrasulov.
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