Ukraine’s SBU refutes claims it plans to charge anti-corruption chief Oleksandr Klymenko

The SBU also called false the reports claiming that Klymenko may soon be served with a notice of suspicion and suspended from his position.

“The information recently spread in the media, based on data from anonymous sources, that allegedly ‘the Security Service of Ukraine is investigating the possible involvement of SAPO head Klymenko in a case in which MP Fedir Khrystenko is testifying,’ does not correspond to reality,” the press service said.

The SBU added that the pretrial investigation into the criminal case involving Khrystenko is ongoing.

On Oct. 6, Babel reported that the Security Service of Ukraine was checking Klymenko’s possible involvement in one of the cases in which MP Fedir Khrystenko — suspected of treason and recently returned from Dubai — is a witness.

Earlier, both Klymenko and National Anti-Corruption Bureau director Semen Kryvonos suggested that there were attempts to replace the heads of Ukraine’s anti-corruption institutions to influence their work.

The SBU and the Prosecutor General’s Office said a member of parliament from the banned Opposition Platform–For Life party had been arrested on charges of treason and abuse of influence. According to NV, the lawmaker in question is Fedir Khrystenko.

Investigators said Khrystenko was recruited by the FSB long before Russia’s full-scale invasion and actively carried out tasks for the Russian intelligence service. Case materials indicate that he established a mechanism to exert influence over the leadership of one of Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies.

The Prosecutor General’s Office said Khrystenko has been remanded in custody until Oct. 21.

On Sept. 5, media reported that Khrystenko, suspected of treason, could be extradited from Dubai to Ukraine in the coming days.

Before the full-scale war, Khrystenko left the country and had been living in the UAE ever since. He was charged in absentia on July 21 and declared wanted on Aug. 13.

Investigators believe the FSB recruited Khrystenko during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych. The SBU described the lawmaker as a “liaison” of collaborator Armen Sarkisyan, also known as Armen Horlivskyi, who was killed in an explosion in Moscow, and said he had close ties to FSB operative and “DNR overseer” Yuriy Ivanyushchenko, known as Yura Yenakiyevskyi.

Kryvonos denied claims that the detained lawmaker from the banned Opposition Platform–For Life party, Fedir Khrystenko, had any mechanism of influence over the National Anti-Corruption Bureau.