SBI Will Continue Active Investigations Into Corruption Of Top Officials - Sukhachov

Director of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), Oleksii Sukhachov, says that yesterday's corruption cases against top officials are just the beginning.

This is stated in the statement of the SBI, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"Today's corruption cases against top officials are just the beginning. The high-profile implementation of the SBI is the result of the Bureau's systematic work over a long period. The Bureau has only begun to inform the public about its steps to combat corruption at the top level. But this work did not stop even after the start of full-scale aggression of the Russian Federation. The Bureau never for a moment forgot that corruption is no less a dangerous enemy for Ukraine than Russia," Sukhachov said.

According to him, the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine made significant adjustments to the work of the SBI too.

"Of course, crimes against National Security and the documentation of war crimes of the Russian Federation came to the fore for the Bureau. This, to some extent, created the illusion of permissiveness among our subjects - we are primarily talking about officials and law enforcement officers - who decided that "war will erase everything." As President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in one of his last addresses: "I want this to be our signal to everyone whose actions or behavior violate the principle of justice," the Director of the Bureau noted.

On February 1, the State Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement agencies conducted a number of activities within the framework of criminal proceedings involving high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Defense, the State Tax Service, and other ministries and agencies.

"This is not all. There is still a lot of interesting material in the work of our investigators and operatives. The time when it was possible to rob the state with impunity and undermine its combat readiness has passed and passed a long time ago. If someone has not understood this yet, so much the worse for them. Now there is only one way - to work for Victory. The more powerful the country will be, the faster the wounds of the war will heal after the Victory," Sukhachov emphasized.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the State Bureau of Investigation served the former Minister of Energy and Coal Industry, Ihor Nasalyk, with suspicion of signing unprofitable deals for the state worth more than UAH 1 billion.

The SBI also searched the ex-Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov.