The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is investigating criminal proceedings on the disclosure by government officials of information containing state secrets, which was published in an article of the Ukrainska Pravda online news site, SBU spokesperson Olena Hitlianska has said.

"The investigative department of the SBU's main office in Kyiv and Kyiv region is conducting a pre-trial investigation into the case on committing a crime under Part 1, Article 328 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (disclosure of state secrets). The criminal proceedings were registered due to the disclosure by officials of a state government agency in Ukraine of the information containing state secrets. An article with such information was published on the pages of the Ukrainska Pravda online news site on January 24, 2017," she wrote on her Facebook page on Friday, September 15.

She said that the object of this crime was an official - a carrier of state secrets.

"The Security Service of Ukraine does not aim to hinder the activities of the Ukrainska Pravda online newspaper and its journalists," Hitlianska said.

Earlier, Ukrainska Pravda reported that on September 14, an SBU investigator handed Sevhil Musayeva, the editor-in-chief of the online news site, a letter with a demand to remove the article about the disruption of the state program for reforming the defense industry sector, as this material discloses state secrets.