Babel is watching the case of the NABU detective Viktor Husarov, who was detained in the summer during a big SBU tour of anti-corruption agencies. Hereʼs what we know about it — from both sides

How Viktor Husarov was detained

On July 21, at around nine in the morning, Viktor Husarov and his wife were returning to Kyiv to work after a vacation outside the city. They left their two young daughters with their parents. At the entrance to Kyiv from the Boryspil side, they slowed down at a checkpoint, as usual.

The car in front of them was stopped. At that moment, about ten armed men in camouflage jumped out onto the road. They ran up to the Gusarovsʼ car and pointed their weapons at them. The people turned out to be SBU officers.

They pulled Viktor Husarov out of the car, knocked him to the ground, reported the search of the car, took his phones, and demanded to provide passwords for his gadgets. They did not show him the search warrants. Husarov said that he would provide the passwords only when the investigator was present.

Husarovʼs wife Olena tells Babel that the SBU officers did not like this, so they beat Husarov, and he told them the passwords. Her phone was also taken away.

Husarovʼs detention at a checkpoint at the entrance to Kyiv.

The investigator arrived an hour later. He examined Olena’s phone and returned it. After searching the car, Husarov was taken to SBU. Olena went home, where other special services officers were waiting to search her. Here they decided to seize her phone after all, and they also took all the cash they found at home.

When Olena said that she had two small children (daughters, 3 and 6 years old), and she needed some money for them, because she was not working yet, the SBU officers offered to leave her UAH 5000.

“What shocked me was that they were not the ones making the decisions, they were all deciding on the phone,” Olena recalls in a conversation with Babel.

During his detention, Viktor Husarov was not allowed to name his place of work, including when he was brought to the pre-trial detention center. This turned out to be a problem.

According to the law, law enforcement officers cannot be held in pre-trial detention centers in cells with civilians — primarily to protect security forces from retaliation.

As a result, he was placed in a separate cell as a former employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The order to declassify his position was brought only the next day to the court session, where a preventive measure was chosen.

Viktor Husarov is a former employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a detective in the secret unit of NABU. He met Dmytro Ivantsov in 2012, when he worked for SBU.

Until 2016, Viktor Husarov worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 2016, he was selected for NABU. Husarov passed a special check by SBU, received access to state secrets and became a detective in the “D-2” unit, the most prestigious and classified.

Undercover agents work there, who infiltrate criminal groups, study them, and document crimes. All the work of the unit and even the fact of working in it is a state secret.

After Viktor Husarovʼs detention, SBU reported that it had exposed an FSB "mole" overseen by Dmytro Ivantsov, the deputy head of Viktor Yanukovychʼs security. SBU noted that it had previously informed the NABU leadership about Viktor Husarov, but the leadership ignored the information, and "after that, the suspect tried to destroy evidence of his illegal activities".

Dmytro Ivantsov worked in the SBUʼs "Alpha" unit. He transferred to the UDO, where he was deputy head of security for then-President Viktor Yanukovych. With him, he fled first to Crimea, and from there to Russian territory.

Ivantsov now lives in occupied Crimea, is the founder of a training center for militants who fought in Donbas. He also participates in the military training of children in the ranks of the so-called "Youth Army".

Ivantsov was charged in absentia with several crimes: desertion and treason (for episodes unrelated to Gusarov). The investigation says that Ivantsov established ties with FSB officer Igor Yegorov no earlier than 2012.

Ivantsov (right) testified in favor of former President Viktor Yanukovych in court in 2018, where he was accused of treason. Ivantsov was online from Crimea

Ivantsov (second from right) at a military-patriotic event for youth in occupied Sevastopol, 2019

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SBU bases its case on the fact that Husarov, while working for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, provided Ivantsov with information from the ministry’s internal database “Armor” since June 2012. Even after Ivantsov fled, Husarov continued to provide him with information — until the end of 2015.

• The investigation qualifies the transfer of data to Ivantsov in June 2012 as unauthorized copying of information.
• The investigation qualifies the transfer of data to Ivantsov between March 19, 2014 and November 25, 2015 as high treason, because "the suspect was aware that his contact had defected to the Russian Federation and was in temporarily occupied territory".

The latter formulation is key in proving Husarovʼs guilt. The prosecutor claims that Husarov is "reasonably suspected of treason" because the prosecution "established that Ivantsov, in conjunction with [FSB officer Igor] Yegorov, created an extensive network of agents that worked to the detriment of the interests of Ukraine".

SBU sees the agent network this way.

The network is run by the FSB Colonel Igor Yegorov.

Viktor Husarov, in a conversation with Babel, recalls that he was introduced to Dmytro Ivantsov by another SBU officer. This happened on June 12, 2012. They left the central administration building together, and the SBU officer introduced his colleague Dmytro Ivantsov as someone who needed help from time to time, says Husarov. Since the acquaintance took place through an SBU officer, he trusted Ivantsov.

As Viktor Husarov explains, law enforcement officers constantly help each other, bypassing formalities. For example, in 2025, even before his arrest, Husarov helped SBU officers identify two Russian agents who worked in Kyiv.

“We call them and ask [them] for something, then they call us and ask [us] for something,” he says, adding that even this year SBU had a problem with operational access to the “Armor” system.

“There is one computer with access to the system and 280 employees who need to check something. That’s why everyone tries to contact other law enforcement agencies at their level,” Husarov explains.

A year ago, SBU had already searched Viktor Husarov in the same case. Husarov and his boss proposed to SBU a joint operation — to lure and detain Ivantsov.

In July 2023, the investigation received evidence that Dmytro Ivantsov was building an agent network and “involved Husarov in illegal activities”, says a source of Babel.

The SBU immediately informed NABU about this. As a high-ranking NABU employee tells Babel, this evidence was checked by both law enforcement agencies — both NABU and SBU.

“They found nothing, and we found nothing [against Husarov]. We found no confirmation that Viktor knew that Ivantsov was a traitor,” says an interlocutor at NABU.

Viktor Husarov says that he learned about Dmytro Ivantsovʼs betrayal only on August 1, 2024, when SBU came to search him. Husarov did not hide anything: he provided gadgets, passwords, explanations, and passed a polygraph test at SBU. No data that could be evidence of a crime was found on his devices, says lawyer Olena Storozhuk.

"I immediately informed my manager about the search, he replied that since there was no suspicion, I could work. I was assigned a polygraph test, I do not know the result, but from indirect evidence I understand that I was clean," says Husarov.

Moreover, as Olena Storozhuk says, Viktor Husarov and the head of his department Borys Indychenko suggested that SBU conduct a joint operation. They proposed luring Dmytro Ivantsov to the territory of a neighboring state and detaining him. But SBU was not interested in this.

Who was the information that Viktor Husarov passed on to Dmitry Ivantsov about?

The security service notes that it has documented at least 60 episodes of information being passed on to Ivantsov. According to Babelʼs sources in law enforcement agencies, he passed on data about former employees of SBU, the State Security Department, and well-known Ukrainian businessmen.

But the document, which the investigation attached to the case materials, lists only five names — Husarov provided information about these people in 2015. It states that the transfer of data about these individuals could pose a threat to state sovereignty and harm Ukraine.

• Former GUR employee Volodymyr Yevdokymov. Husarov provided information about him on February 11, 2015. In the 2000s, he was involved in arms smuggling, and even ended up in prison in Ukraine in 2006. Since 2011, he moved to Russia. And since 2012, he has been the honorary consul of the Russian Federation in the territory of Equatorial Guinea.

• Former head of the Center of Special Operations "A" unit of the SBU department in the Donetsk region is Oleksandr Khodakovsky. Information about him was provided by Husarov on September 18, 2015. Khodakovsky switched to the side of Russia in 2014 and headed the pro-Russian military formation "Vostok" during the capture of Donbas in 2014. Later, he headed the Security Service under the occupation administration in Donetsk, and from March 2023 he became deputy head of the Main Directorate of the Russian Guard for the "DPR".

• Sergey Voronkov. Information about him, as well as about the three others, was provided by Husarov in 2015. Voronkov was born in Russia and, according to Husarovʼs lawyer, is a representative of crime. Apparently, this is the Crimean criminal authority "Voronok", who headed the Crimean gang "Salem" in the nineties, until February 20, 2014, collaborated with pro-Russian politicians, and after the occupation of Crimea, cooperates with Russia. In 2016, he headed the Boxing Federation of the occupied Crimea.

• Konstantin Kystychenko. Originally from St. Petersburg, lives in Crimea. Together with Ivantsov, after 2014 he founded the “Vityaz” militant training center. He trained militants for the PMCs, who were sent, in particular, to the Donetsk region.
• Oleksandr Slotetskiy. Has been a member of the illegal armed formations of the “DPR” since July 21, 2014.

Husarovʼs defense says that the information about these people is contained in the open database "Myrotvorets", it is not confidential, and it is unlikely that the transfer of information about them to Ivantsov in 2015 could harm the sovereignty of Ukraine.

In addition, this information could not have helped Ivantsov build an agent network, because all these people had been working for Russia for over a year in 2015.

"They could not have been recruited on Husarovʼs behalf," says lawyer Olena Storozhuk.

What other data does the investigation have?

The investigation into Husarovʼs case has been ongoing for almost six months. At this stage, investigators are still gathering evidence. They also have the right not to show the defense everything they have.

The investigation is trying to prove that Husarov knew that Ivantsov was acting in favor of Russia. Viktor Husarov says that he did not know that Ivantsov had fled. The only thing the investigation used to substantiate its suspicion was the protocol of the review of correspondence between Dmytro Ivantsov and Viktor Husarov.

SBU published some screenshots of this correspondence in September of this year, but did not indicate the dates on most of them. For example, SBU provided a screenshot where Ivantsov writes that he is already in Crimea.

However, lawyer Olena Storozhuk notes that Dmytro Ivantsov sent this message in 2012, when Russia had not yet occupied Crimea. Therefore, it does not prove Viktor Husarovʼs guilt.

Screenshots of correspondence released by SBU. Left column — Ivantsovʼs message. Right — from Husarov.

SBU provides one screenshot of Ivantsov’s message from March 2014. In it, Ivantsov asks Husarov if there have been any changes in their communication. As Olena Storozhuk explained to Babel, Husarov did not respond to this message and, most likely, did not pay attention to it at all.

“At that time, they all stayed overnight at work and were constantly on assignments, he understood this to mean that everyone had an emergency,” Storozhuk explains.

In another screenshot of the correspondence, Ivantsov asks if Husarov has a card, and in response, Husarov sends its number. SBU cites this screenshot as evidence that Husarov provided information for money. Husarovʼs defense denies this.

Lawyer Olena Storozhuk says there is no confirmation that Husarov asked for money, received money for providing information, and that Ivantsov was the one who transferred the money.

Why was Husarov released from pretrial detention under house arrest?

On December 10, the prosecutor asked the Shevchenkivsky Court to change Viktor Husarovʼs preventive measure and release him from the pre-trial detention center to house arrest.

The court granted the request, and for the first time in almost five months, Husarov went to his family, rather than to a solitary cell in the Lukyanivsky pre-trial detention center.

At the court hearing, the prosecutor explained that after Husarovʼs arrest, the investigation was checking whether he was involved in an agent network, and while it was doing so, Husarov was to be in custody.

The check was completed on the evening of December 9. As the prosecutor said, on the morning of December 10, the investigation held a meeting and decided that a strict preventive measure was no longer needed.

Viktor Husarov and his lawyers are convinced that the case against him is political, although Husarov was not involved in Operation “Midas”.

“They put this case together in a hurry, they urgently needed to declare suspicion to one of the NABU employees,” says Storozhuk.

Husarov adds that the political nature of the case is evidenced by the fact that the investigation had all the information for many years, checked him, and had no previous complaints against him.

After the court released Husarov under house arrest, the prosecutor summoned him for questioning the next day.