Ukraine Anti-Graft Bureau Accuses Security Chiefs of Shielding Crime Network
KYIV — Ukraine’s anti-corruption investigators accused senior security, police and prosecution officials on Wednesday of taking bribes to protect a criminal network that ran scam call centres, sold drugs and counterfeit goods, and organized violent attacks.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office announced the allegations on November 4 under Operation Carthage. They said at least 12 people participated in a structure that reached into the Security Service of Ukraine, the National Police and the Prosecutor General’s Office.
NABU said the organization arranged the “systematic provision of illicit benefits to senior law enforcement officials” in exchange for keeping illegal businesses open. Its claims are allegations under investigation, not court findings. Ukraine’s constitution presumes every suspect innocent until conviction.
Investigators say the network protected dozens of call centres employing about 2,700 people and defrauding Ukrainians and foreigners. Reuters reported that the alleged businesses also sold cannabis-related substances, manufactured counterfeit cigarettes and foreign currency, and planned assaults and kidnappings.
The scale matters because the case is not simply another allegation against a local official. It tests whether Ukraine’s wartime security institutions can investigate themselves while holding immense power over intelligence, policing and prosecution.
Searches reach the security service
NABU detectives carried out court-authorized searches at premises connected to Security Service personnel on Wednesday. The anti-corruption bureau alleged that one senior officer threatened investigators with a firearm and obstructed access. The Security Service did not address that specific accusation in its initial public response.
Acting SBU chief Oleksandr Poklad said the service had dismissed two senior officers implicated in the case and was giving investigators “full support.” He added: “The Security Service expects a transparent, objective, and impartial investigation. The SBU works only for Ukraine and will continue to do so.” The service separately confirmed the searches and its cooperation.
The National Police said it suspended officers under investigation but warned against “premature conclusions.” The Prosecutor General’s Office said it would cooperate and had not known about the alleged illegal conduct.
The responses show the institutions are not formally closing ranks against the inquiry. But they do not erase the deeper conflict between the independent anti-corruption agencies and the SBU, which answers to the president and also conducts battlefield operations.
That struggle intensified last year when security officers arrested two NABU detectives in a campaign that anti-corruption advocates described as an effort to weaken the bureau. NABU has since accused SBU personnel in separate cases of illicit enrichment, draft evasion assistance and intimidation.
The Operation Carthage investigation first became public in September. It contributed to the resignation of Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko after investigators accused a subordinate of helping run the protected call-centre network. Kravchenko has not been charged and says the current case is politically motivated.
Wartime accountability cannot be optional
Ukraine’s government presents European Union membership as a strategic national objective. That bid, and the continued flow of foreign financial support, depends partly on demonstrating that senior officials cannot use wartime secrecy or patriotic language as immunity from investigation.
The danger cuts both ways. Anti-corruption bodies must prove their allegations with admissible evidence and avoid turning institutional rivalry into prosecution by press release. Security agencies, meanwhile, cannot demand public trust while resisting lawful searches or treating internal accountability as an attack on the state.
Wednesday brought a second major anti-corruption milestone. NABU said it completed its pretrial investigation into an alleged money-laundering operation involving contractors for strategic state enterprises, including nuclear operator Energoatom. Investigators say more than $111 million and €12 million passed through the scheme. Former senior officials implicated in that case deny wrongdoing.
The two cases expose the central question confronting Ukraine’s political system: whether extraordinary wartime power will strengthen public institutions or protect private networks around them.
Operation Carthage now places that question inside the country’s most powerful law-enforcement bodies. Suspensions and dismissals are only the opening response. The real test will be whether investigators can follow evidence through the hierarchy, defendants receive fair trials, and the public gets findings rather than another unresolved scandal.
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