Anti-corruption detective charged with graft as conflict with security service escalates

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on Sept. 10 charged a detective of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) with lying in his asset declaration.

The news comes amid escalating tensions between the SBU, Ukraine's security agency, and NABU, the country's principal anti-graft body.

The NABU said on Sept. 10 it had launched an internal probe into the accusations against the employee. The suspect's name was not disclosed.

According to the SBU, a NABU detective purchased a two-room apartment in Uzhhorod in 2023 for approximately $100,000 but registered the property under the name of a fictitious owner, the mother of a close friend.

The property was not disclosed in the detective's 2023 asset declaration, and it was falsely listed as a rental in the 2024 declaration, the SBU said. However, the agency said that the woman listed as the owner had never received any rent.

The NABU said that, in the second half of 2024, its internal audit unit had conducted a background check on the detective to vet him for a new job.

The bureau examined his personal, professional, and moral conduct, as well as the records of his immediate family. Yet, third parties were not included in the review, and no evidence of false declarations was found at the time, according to the NABU.

The NABU said it would take "administrative measures provided for by internal procedures" if the SBU's claims are confirmed.

The reports follow other developments in the conflict between the NABU on the one hand and the SBU and the President's Office on the other hand.

In July the SBU, the State Investigation Bureau and the Prosecutor General's Office conducted at least 70 searches at NABU premises and charged a NABU employee with treason.

Later in the same month, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a bill that de facto eliminated the NABU's independence. The bureau's independence was subsequently restored following large-scale protests.

The conflict continued on Sept. 2, when the NABU charged a top SBU official with illicit enrichment and lying in his asset declaration.

On Sept. 6, the SBU said it had detained Fedir Khrystenko, a fugitive pro-Russian lawmaker wanted for treason.

Khrystenko is seen as a key figure in the SBU's case targeting alleged "Russian influence" at the NABU.

Ukraine’s anti-corruption chief on how his agency became a target — and what’s next

Semen Kryvonos, head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), is stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one side, there’s mounting pressure on the bureau to deliver results, especially in exposing high-level corruption — including in the secretive and ever-expanding defense sector. On the other hand, Kryvonos must constantly defend his agency from attacks — including from other law enforcement agencies, whose loyalties lie with the president’s office. Among them, the all-po

The Kyiv IndependentOleksiy Sorokin