Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk has requested law-enforcement agencies to provide him with state security protection, a source in Ukraine's Finance Ministry has told the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

"The minister has asked for protection, but he has not received it yet," the source said.

Danyliuk said that since the summer of 2017 an active campaign was being waged against him and he did not rule out criminal proceedings might be brought against him on charges of alleged tax evasion. He also said that a number of fake accounts had been set up in social media on his behalf. He also reported about grossly fabricated falsification of alleged sexual harassment.

Danyliuk on Thursday accused the chief of Ukraine Prosecutor General's Office (PGO), Yuriy Lutsenko, of blocking investigations into improprieties at PrivatBank and demanded Lutsenko's resignation.

The finance minister linked the smear campaign against him to the introduction by his ministry of a transparent system of value-added-tax (VAT) reimbursements, blocking corrupt VAT obligation schemes, his refusal to increase financing of the PGO, reforms at Ukraine's State Fiscal Service and investigations of the service's Kyiv offices, as well as the active position of the ministry involving the liquidation of the tax police and creation of the State Financial Investigation Service.