Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has said that all agents of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) who work under cover were hired in violation of the law and use contraband equipment in their work.

"All the so-called NABU agents were hired in violation of the law. The law requires that all NABU employees be hired in an open competition, but dozens of agents, including those two who were registered at a secret address, were selected in line with some closed procedures, which violates the law," he said live on the 1+1 television channel late on Sunday, December 3.

He noted that these agents use illegal equipment in their work.

"We have illegal agents, they use illegal methods of provocation, none of them is admitted to state secrets, but at the same time they are provided with the SBU's wiretapping materials, and this is a criminal offense. They use the wiretapping equipment not registered in Ukraine, which was smuggled," Lutsenko said.

According to him, all this is "a huge bouquet of an illegal group that operates by illegal methods with illegal equipment."

At the same time, Lutsenko added that he had known about the situation with regard to two agents for only two weeks, but now he understands the "completeness of the whole problem of the NABU."

"The whole staff of agents is now outside the law, so the head of the agency who personally started the selection of such agents, gave them access to state secrets, provided them with especially secret documents, must make a decision for himself," he said.