Employees of the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) have completed the investigation of criminal proceedings on high treason of former head of the Main Directorate of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in Crimea Oleh Kulinich. After familiarization of the accused with the materials, the case will be transferred to the court, the press service of the SBI reports.

"During the investigation, the SBI investigators revealed new facts and evidence of illegal activities of the SBU colonel and informed him of suspicion of committing other criminal offenses, namely: unauthorized departure from the duty station committed by a serviceman under martial law, that is, committing a criminal offense (crime) under Part 5 of Article 407 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine; in possession of weapons and military supplies by a military official with abuse of official position by prior agreement by a group of persons under martial law, that is, in committing a criminal offense under Part 4 of Article 410 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine; in illegal possession of firearms without a permit provided for by law (Part 1 of Article 263 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and others," the message says.

It is established that Kulinich was involved by representatives of the FSB of the Russian Federation in secret cooperation and received the operational pseudonym Kotigoroshko. On the instructions of the Russian special services, former Deputy Secretary of the NSDC Volodymyr Sivkovich (former KGB officer of the USSR) and former head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Andriy Kliuyev, who have been hiding from justice in Moscow since 2014, have created a so-called "political office" to monitor the activities of influential Ukrainian politicians and law enforcement officers, the search among them for agents of influence to control political processes in Ukrainian society.

Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Vasyl Maliuk, noted that law enforcement officers did their best not just to detain a high-ranking traitor, but also to collect a powerful evidence base on the basis of which the court will be able to pass a fair sentence.

"This is a clear signal to everyone who works for the enemy: the SBU will definitely find you and make you responsible for what you have done, no matter where you hide. We will pull every mole into the light," Maliuk said, the press service of the SBU reports.

He also stressed that the SBU staff conducted an "unprecedented filigree development and further implementation", having carried out an agent-technical penetration into the ranks of the FSB, and was able to obtain all the files in which Kulinich reported to Moscow information, including secret information, about the situation in Ukraine, in the SBU, and about attempts to influence various processes.

In July 2022, the SBI reported suspicion of treason to Sivkovich and three employees of the FSB of the Russian Federation for espionage. It has been established that Sivkovich, through proxies, controls a number of firms and enterprises in Ukraine that are used to cover up the activities of members of a criminal organization, as well as the financing of persons contributing to them.

The investigation also established that Kulinich was a confidant of Sivkovich. He actively cooperated with the "political office" created by the FSB and followed the instructions of the curators to introduce "his people" into various state and law enforcement agencies, conduct intelligence and subversive activities against Ukraine, espionage, inciting citizens of Ukraine to treason.

Maliuk noted that this office in Moscow is a kind of "mole farm".

"His main task is to collect information and work on Ukraine. The office is attended by personnel of the 5th FSB Service of the Russian Federation. And they directly interacted with Kulinich in full cooperation with Sivkovich. After he transmitted the information, they reported to the FSB," the head of the SBU noted.

Kulinich knew in advance about the plans of the armed forces of the Russian Federation to carry out an attack from the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to the mainland of Ukraine, but deliberately hid this extremely important information from the leadership and forbade sending any documentation on this matter to the Central Security Service of the SBU.

In the first hours of the invasion, he deliberately blocked any attempts to notify the SBU leadership and society about the real situation in the region, did not take any measures to protect state sovereignty, instructed the personnel to leave the duty station, later issued regular weapons to people who were not related to the SBU.

In addition, the official himself left the place of permanent deployment and left for Kyiv on February 24. In one of the apartments where Kulinich lived, investigators found a cache of weapons and his documents from the time of service in the KGB of the USSR.

The head of the SBU stressed that the self–purification of the Service from "moles" and traitors is one of the priority areas of work today.

"Self-cleaning of the Service is extremely important, especially during the war. So we are doing the maximum for this. We find all the shameful phenomena in the Service itself, localize them. The entire staff feels it, the leadership of the state knows it. And I hope the people of Ukraine feel it as well," Maliuk stressed.

As reported, Kulinich was detained on July 16, 2022 during a special operation of the SBI and the SBU. He was informed of suspicion of high treason (Part 1 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and the creation of a criminal organization (Part 3 of Article 255 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

The court chose "detention" as a measure of restraint for him. He is still under arrest.