Zelensky is preparing new dismissals in the SBU and the return of asset declarations for everyone

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced further personnel decisions at the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) following a series of scandalous events involving certain agency employees. According to him, dismissals have already taken place, but the personnel changes will not end there.

The context for these decisions is Operation “Carthage”. As part of it, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) announced that they had uncovered a criminal organization. According to investigators, its members systematically bribed senior law enforcement officials to ensure they did not interfere with illegal businesses.

According to investigators, the scheme involved:

• the operation of fraudulent call centers;
• drug trafficking;
• counterfeit currency production;
• kidnapping;
• assaults on people.

Zelenskyy described the events surrounding the SBU as unpleasant, disgraceful, and absolutely unacceptable. He stressed the need for a full investigation: all the circumstances must be established, and not only those who directly committed the crimes and acts of violence against people, but also those who ordered them must be held accountable.

At the same time, the president praised the results achieved by the Alpha special unit. He called it the service’s most effective unit in the fight against Russian occupiers and said he wanted to see comparable results from other SBU structures.

Another area of change concerns oversight of special service employees’ assets. The head of state said he had approved a bill reinstating mandatory electronic asset declarations for all SBU employees. Information about their property and lifestyle, the president explained, must be available for scrutiny, and they must be held to the same standards of accountability as employees of other government agencies. He urged members of parliament to consider and pass the bill without delay.

Another issue is international assistance with the investigation into the activities of the KhimProm group. According to Zelenskyy, it has already been discussed with the American side at the appropriate level.

The president said that, according to information available to the Ukrainian side, a person involved in the case has allegedly begun operating in Poland and is also trying to enter the German market with synthetic drugs. All the information available to Ukraine is to be shared with international partners.

We previously reported:

• SBU General Duka remanded in custody: bail set at 65 million hryvnias
• Asset declarations to be reinstated for law enforcement officers not fighting in the war
• SBU scandal: senior official dismissed after illegal surveillance of journalists
• Family of former head of the Mykolaiv SBU directorate Gersak bought $1.5 million worth of real estate after his dismissal
• “A large-scale anti-corruption purge took place at the Mykolaiv SBU,” says civic activist