Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has described as justified a notice of suspicion in committing provocative actions and giving a bribe on the part of an agent of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), who was detained the day before.

"I regard as justified the notice of suspicion that was prepared yesterday for the detained NABU agent regarding provoking bribery and giving a bribe," Lutsenko said at a briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.

He also noted that he considered immoral and illegal the actions of NABU agents who tried to provoke a Ukrainian State Migration Service official into committing illegal actions.

"I think that no one in our country would like to see agents trying for months to get some words out of anyone, using vodka, sex or drugs or any other methods," he said.

Lutsenko also said that during a consultation with the heads of the NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) they came to the understanding that such actions in the future are unacceptable.

As reported, the State Migration Service of Ukraine (SMSU) previously reported the detention of a NABU agent in an attempt to give a bribe to SMSU First Deputy Head Dina Pimakhova.

"For several months, a NABU agent, the son of former Party of Regions MP Yuriy Boyarsky, performing illegal orders of certain NABU leaders, repeatedly tried to provoke Pimakhova, offering large sums of bribes for her illegal decisions on the legalization of citizens of Vietnam and Iran in Ukraine, who did not even exist in reality," the ministry said.

According to the SMSU, Pimakhova applied to law enforcement agencies that she was provoked into getting a bribe, after which law enforcement officers carried out operational and search measures to document a criminal group.

"As a result, when an attempt was made to transfer the first part of the bribe in the amount of $15,000, the NABU agent was detained at the scene of the crime by SBU officers. The criminal actions of the NABU agent on provoking bribery of an official envisage accountability under Article 370 of the Criminal Code 'provocation of bribery,'" reads the report.

The NABU said that it never provoked any State Migration Service official into receiving a bribe and that the Prosecutor General's Office and the SBU "illegally intervened" in their special operation aimed at identifying members of an organized criminal group at the SMSU, by detaining on November 29 their detective who worked under cover. According to the NABU, in fact, there is a "planned act of sabotage" against NABU and SAPO employees, realized by the SBU and sanctioned by the prosecutor general.

The bureau refuted a report published on the website of the State Migration Service late on November 29 stating that "a NABU agent" allegedly repeatedly offered the first deputy of the State Migration Service "large sums of bribes" for several months. The NABU also noted that since the beginning of the special operation in April 2017, many other facts of the illegal activities of an organized criminal group had been documented in the composition of current and former employees of the central office and territorial divisions of the State Migration Service.