General Duka threatened detectives with gun and damaged equipment as Alpha unit shielded him – anti-corruption bureau

Oleksandr Abakumov, head of a detective unit at the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), has said that General Serhii Duka, First Deputy Head of the Security Service of Ukraine's (SSU) Department for the Protection of National Statehood, threatened NABU detectives with a gun and smashed equipment with a hammer during a search of his property. Officers from the SSU's Alpha special forces unit attempted to evacuate him.

Source: Abakumov on the UP. Chat programme on Ukrainska Pravda's YouTube channel

Details: Abakumov said investigators had arrived at the general's home outside the city to conduct a search under a court warrant. NABU deployed several officers from its Special Operations Department to provide security.

When a NABU special forces officer tried to climb over the fence to open the gate, unidentified individuals aimed laser-sighted weapons at him and threatened to open fire. Two armed SSU officers stood at the windows of the house, carrying assault rifles, while the general himself appeared at a first-floor window holding a handgun.

Quote: "I used a loudspeaker to say once again: 'This is the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine; we are law enforcement officers. We pose no threat to the lives or health of the people inside. Here is my ID, here is the court order. Do not create a dangerous situation by pointing weapons at officers from other law enforcement agencies.'

There was no response. Instead, the general ran out onto the balcony and started smashing phones with a hammer – he completely destroyed two phones and wrecked one hard drive."

Details: Abakumov said three vans carrying armed officers from the SSU's Alpha special forces unit later arrived at the scene. The officers behaved aggressively.

NABU believes the armed officers were assessing the detectives' positions in preparation for an attempt to free the general by force and evacuate him. A shootout between the two agencies was averted thanks to lengthy negotiations and the arrival of Duka's lawyers, after which he was detained.

Abakumov added that detectives had documented the transfer of four cryptocurrency wallets containing around US$3 million to Duka during the operation. In exchange, the general had agreed to secure the release of funds belonging to the Russian Khimprom drug trafficking cartel that had been frozen by the authorities, acting through the Office of the Prosecutor General.

Previously:

• On the morning of 4 November, NABU stated that during lawful investigative actions carried out by detectives based on an order from an investigating judge of the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC), a senior SSU official had threatened to use firearms and had refused to allow detectives into the search location.
• Ukrainska Pravda journalists found out that the individual in question was Serhii Duka.
• Later that day, NABU and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) released new details of Operation Carthage, which aimed to expose a criminal organisation involving the leadership of law enforcement agencies that was engaged in drug trafficking, abductions, and providing protection for scam call centres.
• On the afternoon of 4 November, NABU detectives detained Serhii Duka in the village of Roslavychi in Kyiv Oblast. It was also revealed that NABU had conducted searches at premises belonging to Anton Kravchuk, Head of the Main Department of Internal Security of the SSU.
• On the evening of 4 November, SSU Head Oleksandr Poklad dismissed the officers who had become subjects of the NABU investigation as part of Operation Carthage.

Background:

• On 4 November, it emerged that searches had been conducted at the premises of representatives of the SSU and the police as part of Operation Carthage.
• Detectives from NABU, under the procedural supervision of prosecutors from the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), served five members of a criminal organisation with notices of suspicion. The organisation had established a system of regularly paying bribes to senior law enforcement officials to ensure that scam call centres and other illegal businesses could operate without interference.
• The pre-trial investigation established that the organiser of the criminal group, Andrii Osipov, who had previously been convicted on multiple occasions, had recruited serving senior officials from the SSU, the Prosecutor General's Office and the National Police, as well as figures from the criminal underworld, to participate in the illegal activities.
• This enabled scam call centres targeting Ukrainian citizens and foreigners to operate without interference, alongside drug trafficking, the illegal manufacture of counterfeit cigarettes and the production of counterfeit foreign currency, among other activities.
• Investigators also established that members of the criminal organisation were involved in assaults, abductions and the infliction of bodily harm on individuals in the interests of the organisation.
• The suspects' alleged offences have been classified as follows: the organiser, Andrii Osipov: Article 255.1, Article 27.3, Article 369.3, Article 27.3, Article 127.3, Article 27.3, Article 199.3 and Article 209.3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine; Serhii Duka, First Deputy Head of one of the SSU departments: Article 255.3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine; Volodymyr Tsenov, Head of one of the National Police departments: Article 255.3 and Article 368.4 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine; Oleksandr Demianchuk, Deputy Head of a department in the Criminal Investigation Directorate of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Kyiv Oblast: Article 255.3, Article 27.5 in conjunction with Article 127.3, and Article 27.5 in conjunction with Article 199.3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine; and Vitalii Rybalko, a subordinate of the organiser: Article 255.2 and Article 127.3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

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