KYIV. May 8 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Chairman of the Independent Trade Union of Miners of Ukraine Mykhailo Volynets has stated the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is keeping him and the union activists under surveillance.

"I know that me, my family, our activists and their families are under the surveillance ... of the Security Service and MP from the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko faction Ihor Kononenko who is in charge of this structure," he said at a press conference at Interfax- Ukraine.

Volynets believes that the reason for surveillance is that the trade union reveals corruption schemes operating at state-owned coal enterprises.

"There is no reaction to our appeals to the president, the Cabinet of Ministers, or the Security Service of Ukraine. Instead of this, we are being shadowed," he said.

Volynets noted the schemes of fictitious procurement of equipment, the artificial overestimation of coal ash content for money laundering for its alleged enrichment, and the "privatization" of coal seams at state mines in favor of the structures related to Oleksandr Yanukovych.

According to Volynets, incumbent Minister of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine Ihor Nasalyk covers up for three "beholders," thriving on state mines.

"These are Vitaliy Kropachev, Andriy Venhrin and criminal leader from Torez [from the occupied territories of Donbas] Schetilov," he said.