A criminal proceeding against First Deputy Head of the State Migration Service (SMS) of Ukraine Dina Pimakhova was opened, but it will not be brought to its logical conclusion because of a special operation conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) Nazar Kholodnytsky has said.

"The proceeding was opened, it was registered, but, unfortunately, because of those events that occurred, we cannot bring it to its logical conclusion," he said live on the 112 Ukraine television channel on Friday, December 15.

"Due to the events that occurred, we will not be able to bring this proceeding to its logical conclusion in court," he added.

Earlier, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said that he was ready to support the accusation against Pimakhova if the SAPO head makes such a decision.

The State Migration Service earlier reported the arrest of a NABU agent during an attempt to give a bribe to SMS deputy head Dina Pimakhova.

"For several months the NABU agent, the son of an ex-Verkhovna Rada deputy from the Party of Regions Yuriy Boyarsky, fulfilling the illegal directives of some NABU officials, attempted to provoke Pimakhova, offering her large sums of money in return for illegal decisions on legalizing citizens of Vietnam and Iran in Ukraine who didn't even exist," the SMS' press service said.

"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.