Deputy Health Minister Vasylyshyn detained on suspicion of bribe-taking together with intermediary on Thursday

The SBU Security Service of Ukraine and the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) on Thursday detained Deputy Health Minister Roman Vasylyshyn on suspicion of taking bribes, SBU Chief Vasyl Hrytsak said.

"The result of coordinated work by the SBU and the PGO was the detention of a high-ranking official. He is Deputy Health Minister Roman Vasylyshyn," Hrytsak said at a briefing held jointly with Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko in Kyiv on Friday.

Vasylyshyn reportedly was the organizer of a scheme when doctors at a Kyiv-based hospital, which he headed before, had to collect money from patients for surgery, Hrytsak said.

Lutsenko said in turn that bribe intermediary, Yuriy Serniak, had also been detained.

"In general, amid the detention and searches, we've seized over $50,000, UAH 320,000 and other evidence of these persons' illegal activity," the SBU head said, adding that $900 and UAH 38,000 belonged to the deputy minister alone.

Vasylyshyn was caught red-handed when taking his fifth bribe, he added.

Hrytsak said that Vasylyshyn had taken bribes regularly. "He had been doing this in a particularly cynical way," he added.

Vasylyshyn was appointed Deputy Health Minister and head of the Health Ministry's staff in November 2015. Prior to that he worked as chief medical officer at Kyiv's Central Municipal Clinical Hospital, also known as Oleksandrivska Hospital.