Former Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Oleh Kulinich will stand trial (VIDEO
The State Bureau of Investigation continues its active work on identifying traitors and collaborators among the military and law enforcement officers. The actions of the latter posed a particular threat to the national security of our state.
In April 2023, State Bureau of Investigation employees completed the investigation of the criminal proceedings on high treason against Oleh Kulinich, former Head of the SBU Main Directorate in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
The accused deliberately delayed familiarisation with the case file, so investigators were forced to apply to the court to impose a deadline.
The case file has now been submitted to the court.
Oleh Kulinich was detained on 16 July 2022 during a special operation by the State Bureau of Investigation and the Security Service of Ukraine. He was served a notice of suspicion of high treason (Article 111(1) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and creation of a criminal organisation (Article 255(3) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
A custodial detention was imposed on him as a measure of restraint. He remains in custody to this day.
The successful implementation of this special operation and the detention of the russian agent became possible as a result of the principled position of the state leadership.
In the course of the investigation, SBI officers uncovered new facts and evidence of the SSU colonel's illegal activities and served him a notice of suspicion of committing other criminal offences, namely
in unauthorised leaving of the place of service committed by a serviceman under martial law (Part 5 of Article 407 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);
seizure of weapons and ammunition by a military official with abuse of office by prior conspiracy by a group of persons under martial law (part 4 of Article 410 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);
unlawful possession of firearms without a statutory permit (Part 1 of Article 263 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and others.
It was established that Oleg Kulinich was involved in covert cooperation with the Russian Federal Security Service and received the operational nickname "Kotyhoroshko".
On the instructions of the russian federal security service, former deputy secretary of the national security and defence council Volodymyr Sivkovych (formerly a KGB officer) and former head of the presidential administration of Ukraine Andriy Kliuyev, who have been hiding from justice in Moscow since 2014, created a so-called 'political office' to monitor the activities of influential Ukrainian politicians, senior officials and law enforcement officers, and to search for agents of influence among them to control political processes in Ukrainian society.
In July 2022, the SBI notified Volodymyr Sivkovych and three russian federal security service officers of suspicion of treason for espionage.
It was established that Sivkovych, through his proxies, controls a number of companies and enterprises in Ukraine that are used to cover up the activities of members of a criminal organisation and to finance persons who assist them.
The investigation also established that Oleg Kulinich was a trustee of Vladimir Sivkovych. He actively cooperated with the "political office" created by the fss and followed the instructions of his supervisors to infiltrate "his people" into various state and law enforcement agencies, conduct intelligence and subversive activities against Ukraine, espionage, and incite Ukrainian citizens to commit treason.
Oleh Kulinich knew in advance about the plans of the russian federation's armed forces to attack the mainland of Ukraine from the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, but he deliberately concealed this crucial information from his superiors and forbade them to send any documentation on this matter to the SBU Central Office.
In the first hours of the invasion, he deliberately blocked any attempts to inform the SBU leadership and the public about the real situation in the region, failed to take any measures to protect state sovereignty, ordered his personnel to leave the place of service, and later issued service weapons to people who were not related to the SBU.
In addition, the official left the place of permanent deployment himself and left for Kyiv on 24 February. In one of the apartments where Oleh Kulinich lived, investigators found a cache of weapons and his documents from his time in the ussr kgb.
The Kulinich case is just an episode of the illegal activities of russian special services aimed at destabilising the situation in Ukraine. Law enforcement officers continue to work to expose the aggressor's network, and a significant part of it has already been neutralised.
