Corruption scandals in the SSU in recent years: much ado and zero result

In recent years, high-profile corruption scandals involving top officials of the Security Service of Ukraine have become commonplace, regularly shaking the media space. But how do they end? Spoiler - with nothing, but let’s start from the beginning.

It is, of course, impossible to list all the scandals. Therefore, we will only recall the most high-profile ones involving senior SSU officials. Then we’ll try to explore how it all ended. We won’t delve too deeply into history, just enough to explore the scandals of the last five years, when the "purification of power" began in Ukraine.

One of the most important criteria will be the material component - bribes, illicit enrichment, extortion, etc. We will leave aside the rest - betrayal, "Wagnergate," etc.

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Colonel Ivan Kalabashkin

So, the latest scandal in the SSU is associated with the name of the Deputy Head of the SSU Cyber Protection Department, Ivan Kalabashkin. All his relatives turned out to be owners of a large collection of elite real estate and an equally impressive car fleet. In total, Colonel Kalabashkin’s family owns three apartments at "Zoloti Vorota" ($710,000), two in the "Da Vinci" residential complex ($240-350,000 each), and an apartment in the "Yaroslaviv Grad" residential complex ($450,000). There is also a cottage near Kyiv and land worth at least a million dollars. The car fleet consists of five Mercedes cars, supplemented by parking spaces worth $140,000.

The total valuation of the brave colonel’s assets is at least two million dollars. The official response of the SSU leadership to the journalistic investigation is worth quoting: "All information about the income of the family and relatives of the Service official, for which the respective real estate objects were purchased, is contained in the registers and databases of authorized state bodies. Employees of the Security Service of Ukraine adhere to all financial control requirements stipulated by current legislation, including submitting declarations and other forms of reporting within the deadlines set by the Law ’On Corruption Prevention.’

No reaction from the president, no reaction from the head of the SSU, no criminal proceedings.

Brigadier General Illya Vityuk

The head of Kalabashkin, Illya Vityuk, got into a property scandal a year earlier. The head of the SSU Cyber Protection Department also turned out to have wealthy relatives - the wife and mother of Vitiuk own real estate worth at least 25.5 million hryvnias at market value.

According to the declaration, his wife bought a 195-meter apartment in the Pechersk district for 12 million 800 thousand hryvnias, although its market value is at least 21.5 million. Vitiuk’s mother, who works as a simple doctor, bought three apartments in Kyiv alone, totaling over four million hryvnias.

There was indeed a reaction to the journalists’ investigation, which cannot be denied. If, of course, a service check can be considered such a reaction. Zelenskyy remained silent, Malyuk too. There is no criminal case, nor is one expected.

In September of last year, the NAPC completed monitoring the lifestyle of the former head of the SSU Cyber Security Department, Brigadier General Illia Vitiuk, and found no discrepancies between his declared and actual lifestyle.

Brigadier General Andriy Naumov

Andriy Naumov headed the Main Directorate of Internal Security of the SSU under Ivan Bakanov. In 2020, Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded Naumov the rank of brigadier general. However, after Naumov fled to Serbia in 2022, he was stripped of the title.

The NAPC accused Andriy Naumov of unlawful enrichment amounting to almost 33 million hryvnias. However, this happened only in 2024, when Naumov was already out of reach of Ukrainian law enforcement. The reason for the criminal case was not Naumov’s crossing of the Ukrainian border on the eve of a full-scale war, but his arrest by the Serbs in July 2022, when 592,990 euros and 120,102 dollars were found undeclared in his car.

Not even two years passed before the NAPC accused Naumov of unlawful enrichment. Apart from the money found by the Serbs, the SSU general is accused of the unlawful origin of funds used to purchase BMW X6 xDrive40d vehicles worth 116,022 euros and Toyota MC Land Cruiser 200, registered to the common-law wife of a former SSU employee and her father.

In this context, it is worth recalling that in October 2020, journalists of the "Radio Liberty" project "Schemes" discovered immovable property of Naumov that did not correspond to the declared income of a civil servant. At that time, there was no reaction from law enforcement.

Neither the president nor the former and current heads of the SSU have made any statements on this matter. The judicial prospects are doubtful, although the case is being investigated by the NACP.

Oleksandr Provotorov, SSU Department of Economic Security

Oleksandr Provotorov is accused of unlawful enrichment to the tune of 27.7 million hryvnias. Provotorov, at the time of his arrest in 2024, had already been dismissed from the SSU by Vasyl Malyuk, but in 2022 he headed the SSU Department of Economic Security. In this position, he was involved in purchasing fuel and armored vehicles for the Service at inflated prices.

Moreover, Provotorov and his family members were found with funds, real estate, and vehicles of questionable origin: $70,000 and €40,000; an apartment in Kyiv valued at over 4.4 million hryvnias; a Mitsubishi I200 vehicle worth 860,000 hryvnias; a Toyota RAV-4 Hybrid vehicle worth over 1.1 million hryvnias; a Jeep Grand Cherokee vehicle worth 500,000 hryvnias; a Volvo XC90 vehicle worth over 1.6 million hryvnias; a Tesla Model X vehicle worth 500,000 hryvnias; five immovable properties, four of which are located in the Pechersk district of Kyiv, totaling over 13.8 million hryvnias; several land plots in the Zaporizhzhya and Kyiv regions totaling 235,000 hryvnias.

A criminal case against Oleksandr Provotorov was initiated by the SSU itself in April 2024, and a pre-trial investigation is underway. What the prospects are - time will tell, but the fact that the case is still not in court raises skepticism. However, we hope that the law will work in this case.

Colonel Serhiy Shcherbakovskyi, who did end up in prison

In 2024, an employee of the Counterintelligence Department in the field of information security, SSU Colonel Serhiy Shcherbakovskyi, caught taking a bribe of $60,000, was sentenced by the HACC to ten years in prison.

Colonel Shcherbakovskyi was accused of extorting a bribe from the owners of a mining farm for the return of equipment seized during an investigation into electricity theft in eastern Ukraine.

This case was commented on by Vasyl Malyuk, who called the verdict a "signal for cleansing the government."

Other high-profile cases related to the SSU

The above five cases of corruption-related scandals do not exhaust everything happening in the SSU.

Where, for example, should we place the group of the ex-adviser to the Office of the President and SSU employee Artem Shilo, whose actions caused losses of almost one hundred million hryvnias to "Ukrzaliznytsia" from the purchase of transformers? The SSU stated that Artem Shilo was removed from the staff. No body - no case? How should we interpret this SSU statement?

Another high-profile case related to the SBU is not directly related to corruption but was triggered by a journalist investigation by Bihus.Info into corrupt actions by current SSU employees. As a result, the SSU organized surveillance of the journalists themselves. At state expense, by the way.

How should we regard the leak of information about the operation to detain members of the PMC "Wagner," which was thwarted at the last moment, either at the OPU level or at the level of the top SBU leadership?

It is better to remain silent about the former head of the SSU, Ivan Bakanov, who, according to some senior politicians, "screwed up" the invasion in February 2022 because it seems he was "forgotten."

Such examples are dozens, if not hundreds. But most of them share the same thing as the corruption scandals - complete impunity.

Sad conclusions

As noted above, we focused only on corruption crimes. However, there is only one crime on this list - committed by the unlucky Colonel Shcherbakovskyi, who was caught on a minor bribe.

The rest are innocent until proven guilty by a court. So, all SSU employees, despite the million-dollar sums featured in their cases, are law-abiding citizens who either continue to serve in protecting the Fatherland within the SSU or have the possibility of returning there in the case of an acquittal. Which, as everyone understands, is quite likely given the current system of power in Ukraine. And after that, they will receive all due payments for forced absence. And - compensation from the state for "unlawful criminal prosecution" if such occurs.

In light of the above cases, several obvious and very sad things become apparent. In the vast majority of cases, the key role in exposing uniformed criminals is played not by law enforcement agencies but by journalists. Who, in return, face persecution by the same SSU.

In cases where, under public pressure, a criminal case is nevertheless opened against a top SSU official, it drags on for years, reducing its judicial prospects to practically zero.

The SSU’s response to journalists’ investigations is purely formal - it usually boils down to declarative statements and formal service checks. The response from the president and other top political leaders of the country is almost non-existent. All this indicates deep systemic decay, both of the Security Service of Ukraine in particular and of the country’s law enforcement and political system as a whole.