The State Bureau of Investigation carried out searches at the home of Valerii Kondratiuk, lieutenant general and former head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service. Competent sources confirmed the information to ZN.UA; according to interlocutors, the grounds for the proceedings were the procurement of software for OSINT.
“The searches have already taken place,” a ZN.UA source said. The SBI made it clear that the reason to open the proceedings was sought urgently and was found precisely in the purchases of open-source intelligence software. According to the outlet, Kondratiuk has his own channels of communication with Western officials and journalists who treat him with respect; on Bankova, these uncontrolled contacts are causing concern. In the President’s Office, the general is viewed as one of the key communicators for Defence Intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov with Western partners, which particularly does not suit the President’s Office.
On the eve of the searches, journalist Aliona Yakhno wrote on Facebook that the SBI had received instructions “to actively look for kompromat and register criminal proceedings against former senior army officials,” naming among potential targets generals Mykhailo Zabrodskyi, Serhii Naiev, Mykola Oleshchuk, Viktor Muzhenko, Serhii Kryvonos and Valerii Kondratiuk. In her view, the reasons are the President’s Office’s dissatisfaction with their independence (including in the media), authority and influence, including internationally, as well as election preparations and a “clearing of the field.”
According to ZN.UA, about a month ago Lieutenant General Serhii Naiev submitted a request to be discharged from military service, but it has still not been approved by Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal; on Bankova, Naiev is allegedly seen as a possible head of the election headquarters of potential presidential candidate Valerii Zaluzhnyi. Separately, the outlet notes the ties of generals Mykhailo Zabrodskyi, Viktor Muzhenko and Serhii Kryvonos to former president Petro Poroshenko, against the backdrop of ongoing confrontation between him and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.