Head of Ukraine's Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) Nazar Kholodnytsky has said that reports of allegedly illegal telephone tapping by employees of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) have not yet been confirmed.

"With regard to illegal wiretapping by NABU, about which they have currently reported, I have heard about it for about six months... I have currently seen no evidence that NABU did something illegal in these proceedings," he said live on the 1+1 television channel late on Thursday, September 21.

However, he said that if there are any signs of an offense or crime in the actions of NABU detectives, he will be "the first who will demand punishment."

On September 21, Prosecutor General's Office spokeswoman Larysa Sarhan said that PGO was conducting a pretrial investigation into a criminal case pursuant to Article 365 (exceeding authority) and Article 366 (forgery) of the Criminal Code allegedly committed by NABU agents.

"It's been established that NABU agents in 2016 illegally, without the necessary approvals from an investigation judge, conducted operations with measures, including surveillance of individuals' movement throughout the country and wiretapping of conversations on 114 telephones," she wrote on her Facebook page.

She added that the measures were directed against members of Ukraine's Military Intelligence Directorate, the Ukrainian foreign reconnaissance service, the National Police of Ukraine, Ukraine's SBU Security Service, the Directorate of State Security, the state administration affairs office, deputy prime ministers, members of Ukraine's State Fiscal Service, high court judges, regional judge chairpersons in Kyiv, university heads and other public officials.