Ukraine has stepped up its purge of double agents from its spy service, convinced that high-ranking traitors prepared the ground for last year’s Russian invasion and helped Russian forces seize the southern city of Kherson and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the north, Politico reported, citing News.ro.

Tetyana Sapyan, a spokeswoman for the State Bureau of Investigation of Ukraine, said that Russian FSB agents infiltrated both the Security Service of Ukraine and local governments, undermining Ukraine from within with the help of pro-Moscow Ukrainian officials who fled the country after the 2014 Euromaidan uprising .

Sapian suggested that what we have learned on the subject may only be the tip of the iceberg.

“The network is much wider, and the investigation aims to find out all the circumstances and actions of the persons who contributed to the quick capture of a part of the south by the aggressor’s troops who arrived from the territory of the annexed Crimea,” she said. .

Kherson is suspected of treason

Earlier this month, the State Bureau of Investigation of Ukraine, together with the Internal Security Service of the SBU, completed an investigation into the former head of the SBU Department in Crimea, Oleg Kulinich, who is based in Kherson.

Law enforcement authorities suspect that Kulinici worked as an FSB mole, infiltrating Ukraine’s top security meetings with the help of fugitive pro-Russian officials and a former United MP who is under US sanctions.

“In the first hours of the invasion, Kulinich deliberately blocked any attempts to inform the leadership of the real situation in the region (Kherson). He did not take any measures to protect the sovereignty of Ukraine. He ordered the staff to leave the workplace. Later, he gave ordinary weapons to people who had no relation to the SBU. He left his post and went to Kyiv on February 24,” Sapyan said at the briefing.

Kulinich was arrested last July and charged with treason.

If convicted, he faces up to life in prison. The Bureau of Investigation and the SBU released wiretaps between Kulinichi and his alleged associate, former Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Sivkovitsy, who fled Ukraine to Russia in 2014.

Russia has trained traitors in Ukraine

In January 2022, the United States imposed sanctions on Sivkovich for cooperation with a network of Russian intelligence agents. The goal was to conduct influence operations aimed at getting Ukraine to officially recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea in exchange for the withdrawal of Moscow-backed forces from Donbas in eastern Ukraine.

According to the US Treasury Department, in early 2020 Sivkovici also participated in a disinformation campaign surrounding the 2020 US presidential election.

The head of the SBU, Vasyl Malyuk, said that Kulinychi received orders from the Moscow political office of fugitive Ukrainian officials – “the so-called locust farm, which was handled by the fifth department of the FSB.”

Malyuk called Kulinich’s case “self-cleansing” of the SBU and said that the special service continues its anti-FSB campaign.

According to Tetiana Sapian, Kulinich studied at the FSB Academy in Moscow with Andriy Derkatsi, another fugitive pro-Russian lawmaker who was sanctioned by the US for cooperating with the FSB and meddling in US elections.

How the Russian network of double agents could operate

Investigators said that Kulinich insisted on the appointment of Andriy Naumov as deputy head of the SBU. Now Naumov is threatened with extradition to Ukraine from Serbia.

Naumov left Ukraine a few hours before the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion began. He would have helped the Russians seize the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on the first day of the invasion. The Russian website The Insider reported that Russia offered Naumov asylum in exchange for “testifying against Zelensky.”

Naumov is also suspected of money laundering. He denies the accusations against him.

“One of Kulinichi’s main duties was to undermine the activities of the central government from the inside, infiltrate it with enemy agents, unbalance its activities,” said Sapian.

According to her, Kulinich had access to the highest state secret since at least May 2019. He unofficially followed the counterintelligence division.

“On Sivkovich’s instructions, Kulinich appointed people to some management positions in the SBU. He was primarily interested in the regional subdivisions of Chernihiv Oblast, Sumy Oblast, Kharkiv Oblast and other border regions,” said Sap’yan.

“Also, he regularly misinformed the leadership about the true intentions of the Russian special services,” Sapyan claims.

Ivan Bakanov (PHOTO: Ukrinform / Editors Shutterstock / Profimedia)

Suspicion of treason at the highest level of the Ukrainian special services

Zelensky fired Kulinich in March of last year. However, the Ukrainian news website RBC reported that even after that, Kulinich was an adviser to the former head of the SBU, Ivan Bakanov.

The SBU conducted an official check on Bakanov, but its results are secret, SBU spokesman Artem Degtyarenko said at a briefing on April 5.

And Sapyan stated that the investigative bureau did not find anything criminal in Bakanov’s actions. However, last year, a day after the arrest of Kulinich, Zelensky released Bakanov, who was his childhood friend.

The reason: too many collaborators were arrested because the service was under his leadership.

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