Former SSU head in Crimea knew about russia's attack from peninsula however blocks info transmission to Kyiv

Oleh Kulinich, the former head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) Office in Crimea, who is suspected of treason, knew about the plans and intentions of the russians to attack the Kherson Region from Crimea but deliberately hid the transfer of information to the leadership in Kyiv.

This follows from court documents, the Ukrainian News agency reports.

According to the investigation, in pursuit of the criminal goal of providing assistance to russia in carrying out subversive activities against Ukraine, he deliberately hid information about the plans and intentions of the Armed Forces of the russian federation regarding an attack from the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea on the mainland of Ukraine.

On February 24, 2022, at 1:03 a.m., Kulinich was informed about the plans and intentions of the russian federation attack from Crimea in the form of a text message in a special chat in the Element messenger, which was used by the management and personnel of the SSU in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea for the timely exchange of operational information about the general situation on the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, as well as summarizing information received from the operational staff of the SSU in Crimea based on the results of counter-intelligence measures at entry-exit checkpoints located on the administrative border with Crimea.

Information about the preparation of russia's attack from Crimea on mainland Ukraine was published in the 'Headquarters' chat by one of the deputy chiefs of the SSU in Crimea based on the results of radio interception of the "South" radio station.

The message stated that on February 24, 2022, at 04:00, units of the Armed Forces of the russian federation will launch an offensive from Crimea to the mainland of Ukraine.

Having familiarized himself with the content of the specified message, at 1:11 a.m., Kulinich instructed subordinate employees of the SSU to count the number of russian equipment.

In order to timely inform the leadership of the SSU about the received information of an intelligence nature for the benefit of Ukraine, in accordance with the established Procedure for handling encrypted information in the SSU, approved with the order of the SSU 1392/DSK dated September 10, 2018, an expert consultant of the information and analytical department of the State SSU in Crimea prepared an encrypted information message with the received information about hostile plans and intentions of the russian federation against Ukraine, which, after Kulinich's signature, was to be sent via secure means of communication to the address of the Central Office of the SSU, to report to the state leadership for taking appropriate response measures.

At the same time, Kulinich deliberately ignored singing the prepared encrypted information message and did not give any instructions to his subordinates about proving the content of the received information of an intelligence nature to the leadership of the SSU, thus deliberately hiding from the leadership information about the plans and intentions of the russian federation regarding the attack from Crimea.

By his actions, Kulinich significantly reduced the defense capability of Ukraine and deprived the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) and other military formations of the opportunity to take appropriate response measures on time to counter the armed aggression of the russian federation against Ukraine, thereby creating favorable conditions for an attack on the mainland of Ukraine, which became the basis for the occupation of a large part of the territory of Ukraine and caused significant harm to the citizens of Ukraine, society and the state.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, the case of Oleh Kulinich was sent to court on treason charges.

Kulinich, the ex-head of the SSU in Crimea, who is suspected of treason, was remanded in custody.