A member of the negotiation process with Russia, the adviser to the head of the Presidentʼs Office (OP) Mykhailo Podolyak informed that the murder of one of the consultants of the Ukrainian delegation Denys Kireev whom the SBU allegedly accused of treason, was connected with the poor coordination of the Ukrainian special services at the beginning of the war.
He told about this in an interview with the Latvian Delfi.
According to him, Kireev was in contact with the Main Directorate of Intelligence (MDI) but the power structures did not have a single coordination of actions among themselves.
"There were certain claims against him on the one hand, on the other hand they did not have time to settle these claims in a dialogue format, this is not related to the work of the delegation and the negotiation process. He was not an agent of Russia," assured Podolyak and added that the Russian Federation then tried to present Kireev as its agent, but in fact he was not connected to the enemy.
The press service of the SBU currently does not comment on Kireevʼs murder, so the investigation is being conducted by the SBU.
- On March 5, 2022, it was reported that representatives of the Security Service of Ukraine shot and killed banker Denys Kireev in Kyiv during the arrest, who participated in the negotiations between the delegations of Ukraine and Russia in Gomel on February 28. He was allegedly suspected of treason.
- The day before, The Wall Street Journal published a text in which it tells how Kireev got into negotiations with Russia and warned the head of intelligence Kyrylo Budanov about the invasion and attack on Kyiv on February 23, 2022. It turns out that Kireev was recruited by Ukrainian intelligence several years ago, and his testimony helped Kyiv survive the initial attack.