MP working for Russia with significant influence on NABU exposed – Ukraine's Security Service

The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), together with the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office, has exposed Fedir Khrystenko, an MP from the banned Opposition Platform — For Life party, for treason. The case files indicate that he was a top agent of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and was responsible for increasing Russian influence on the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).

Source: SSU on social media

Details: The SSU reported that Khrystenko fled Ukraine after the start of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine and continues to influence the NABU from abroad.

The investigation found that Khrystenko was recruited by the Russian FSB back during Viktor Yanukovych's presidency and is currently in close contact with Yurii Ivaniushchenko (known as Yura Yenakiievskyi), who is a resident (head) of the FSB and the Russian intelligence service's overseer for the so-called "Donetsk People’s Republic" (DPR), a breakaway unrecognised quasi-state in Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast. In addition, Khrystenko was a liaison officer for the collaborator Armen Sarkisian (known as Armen Horlivskyi), who died in an explosion in an elite Moscow residential complex in early 2025.

It is reported that the MP actively performed tasks for the Russian secret service during the Revolution of Dignity. In particular, he was working for the organisation of the Anti-Maidan; he used private carriers under his control to transport titushky.  ["titushky" were hired thugs used to intimidate Maidan protesters in 2014 – ed.]

The investigation states that Khrystenko is currently in close relations with some NABU leaders. Among them is Ruslan Mahamedrasulov, one of the heads of the bureau's interregional detective departments, who was detained by the SSU on 21 July on suspicion of conducting business with Russia and contacts with the Russians.

The available information suggests that Khrystenko knew this detective from their student days at Donetsk University.

Another of his connections is the head of the NABU detective unit, Oleksandr Skomarov, with whom Khrystenko is in close contact. It was recorded that Skomarov's wife was travelling abroad in a car belonging to Khrystenko's wife in 2022, during the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Skomarov participated in the contest for the head of another Ukrainian law enforcement agency, the Bureau of Economic Security. The investigation found that if he won the contest, Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky hoped that Skomarov, as the new head of the Bureau of Economic Security, would help close the criminal proceedings against him. This information was confirmed by evidence of Kolomoiskyi's communications with one of his subordinates.

However, Kolomoisky is not the only oligarch whom Khrystenko tried to help. It has been documented that NABU detectives helped another Ukrainian businessman, Ihor Kolomoisky's business partner Hennadii Boholiubov, escape.

In particular, two NABU employees, Skomarov's subordinates, accompanied the fugitive oligarch when he crossed the state border of Ukraine: they were in the next carriage of the train "for safety". Investigators believe that Fedir Khrystenko also organised this "special operation".

The searches of the MP's contacts revealed materials from NABU criminal proceedings, including documents on covert surveillance of the suspects and application forms for candidates for NABU detectives, which indicates Russian influence and systematic leaks of information from the anti-corruption agency.

Khrystenko was served a notice of suspicion in absentia under the following articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:

• Articles 28.1 and 28.2 (criminal offence committed by a group of persons, or a group of persons upon prior conspiracy, or an organised group, or a criminal organisation) and Article 111.2 (treason);
• Article 369.2 (repeated giving of a bribe).

Background:

• The SSU is taking comprehensive measures to establish all the circumstances of possible agent infiltration of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau by Russian secret services.
• NABU claims that the searches conducted by the SSU on the morning of 21 July in the bureau involve 15 NABU employees and are being conducted without court warrants. Most of the individuals are accused of involvement in the accident, while some are accused of possible ties with Russia.
• The Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) says that the SSU's investigative actions are being carried out without the legally required notice and that the SSU has now gained access to information on all covert and operational activities, as well as special operations conducted by NABU and SAPO.

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