Zelenskyy introduces SBU asset declarations bill

9 November, 11:41 PM
Zelenskyy / Telegram

Zelenskyy / Telegram

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has registered a bill with the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada) that would oblige national security personnel, including SBU security service agents, to file financial disclosures.

The bill appeared on the parliament’s website on Nov. 9. Under current rules, security-force service members can submit financial disclosures only 90 days after martial law ends or after they leave the service. According to the bill’s explanatory note, the rule applies to everyone, regardless of whether they are engaged in combat. As a result, employees of rear and administrative units have remained outside financial oversight for years.

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The bill would preserve the disclosure deferment for members of the Ukrainian armed forces, National Guard, State Border Guard Service, State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection, State Protection Department and State Special Transport Service, as well as police special forces personnel involved in combat.

Service members of other government agencies, including the SBU, would be allowed to postpone filing a disclosure only if they are directly participating in combat on the final day of the filing period. Subsequent involvement in combat would not extend the deadline.

Those who have not filed disclosures since 2021 would have to do so within 90 days after the law takes effect. The bill also clarifies whose disclosures may be closed for security reasons, whose may not and how public access to them should be restored.

On Nov. 4, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) announced they had uncovered a drug syndicate with suspected Russian ties as part of the Carthage investigation. Investigators believe the syndicate operated under the protection of SBU and National Police officials. Its members are suspected of running fraudulent call centers, trafficking drugs, producing counterfeit cigarettes and counterfeiting foreign currency.

At approximately 1 p.m. that day, NABU detectives detained SBU Gen. Serhii Duka. Ukrainska Pravda and Babel, citing sources, reported that National Police officials Volodymyr Tsenov and Oleksandr Demianchuk, along with boxing club founder Vitalii Rybalko, were also detained. SBU chief Oleksandr Poklad dismissed two senior security service officials implicated in the investigation.

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