Investigators of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) have established new facts of criminal activity of the former Minister of Education and Science Dmytro Tabachnyk, suspected of treason, the SBU reports.

"It has been established that he (Tabachnyk) is in direct contact with a staff member of the 9th Directorate of the Department of Operational Information of the 5th FSB Service Oleg Kozlov. After the start of the full-scale invasion, the traitor coordinated his subversive activities against Ukraine with a representative of the Russian special service," the SBU said on the Telegram channel on Friday.

According to the investigation, the ex-minister actively participated in the organization of pseudo-referendums in the occupied areas of Kherson and Zaporizhia regions.

"At the same time, Tabachnyk directly fulfilled Moscow's tasks of ‘reformatting’ the educational and medical industries to meet the needs of the aggressor country. It was under his coordination that most of the educational institutions and hospitals in the region were converted into barracks of the occupation groups of the Russian Federation, the traitor conducted the corresponding ‘events’ together with gauleiters Saldo and Balytsky," the report says.

The SBU informs that last autumn Tabachnyk was appointed adviser to the head of the occupation administration in the temporarily occupied part of Zaporizhia region, and he was also included in the local cell of the Kremlin's United Russia party.

In addition, the facts of the defendant's participation in the looting of the property of residents of Melitopol have been established.

"Together with Murad Saidov, the so–called ‘enforcer’ from Kadyrov for the region, in April last year they organized the export of agricultural machinery to Crimea from the warehouses of the local agricultural holding," the SBU said.

Based on the collected evidence, Tabachnyk was additionally notified of suspicion under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: Article 111-2 (aiding the aggressor state), Article 438 (violation of the laws and customs of war).

The SBU recalls that in November last year, the SBU informed Tabachnyk of suspicion under Part 2 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (high treason committed under martial law).

Subsequently, the Security Service seized the property of the defendant for a total amount of more than $2 million.

The investigation was conducted by SBU officers in Vinnytsia region under the procedural leadership of the regional prosecutor's office.