Former lawmaker Serhii Pashynskyi said on Feb. 12 that officers from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) searched his home.
According to Pashynskyi, the search was in relation to an almost 10-year-old investigation into controversial Ukrainian businessman Serhii Kurchenko, who fled Ukraine in 2014 and is accused of funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into his own pockets from the sale of state-owned natural resources. Kurchenko has lived in Russia since 2014.
Pashynskyi, whom President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly referred to as a "criminal" in 2019, has been heavily involved in procuring weapons for the Ukrainian army since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
An investigation by The New York Times released in August 2023 found that a company associated with Pashynskyi has become the "biggest private arms supplier in Ukraine."
Pashynskyi highlighted his work procuring weapons for the army in a Facebook post on Feb. 12, in which he shared news of the search of his home by the SBU and NABU.
"I only have one request to the investigators - do not distract me with Kurchenko, please," he wrote.
Pashynskyi suggested that the investigation was related to an appeal he had made as a lawmaker in 2015 to use oil confiscated from companies associated with Kurchenko to cover a shortage faced by Ukraine's military.
A lawmaker from the bloc of former President Petro Poroshenko accused Pashynskyi in 2015 of laundering funds obtained from the confiscated fuel.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
(Updated: )
