SBU general Duka explains contacts with “Khimprom” as building an agent network

SBU Major General Serhiy Duka linked his arrest to NABU searches at his home last year and indirectly confirmed contacts with representatives of the criminal organization “Khimprom.”

According to him, these contacts were maintained to build an agent network and conduct covert operations against Russia. This is stated in Duka’s open letter, which his lawyer Yuriy Sukhov published on Facebook.

Duka claims that the motion to impose a preventive measure on him was prepared by NABU detective Roman Nedov — the same one whose home the general searched last year.

“This is a clear conflict of interest. I was told directly that I would sit ‘no less than [Ruslan] Mahamedrasulov sat,’ their detective detained last year,” Duka claims.

According to the general, the investigation did not provide evidence of his guilt, and instead presented an “emotional video sequence in the style of ‘The Matrix'” and “conversations torn out of context,” which, in his opinion, could have been processed using artificial intelligence.

At the same time, Duka effectively confirmed the contacts with “Khimprom” that the investigation accuses him of, but explained them by the need to build an agent network.

“Intelligence services around the world recruit people from various strata of society to carry out special tasks. We do not divide people into bad and good, we identify those who achieve the goals of the service. This is not about justifying crimes, but about a necessary component of operational work. Contact with a source of information in itself does not make anyone a member of a criminal organization, and that is exactly what I am accused of. Blinded by a thirst for revenge, they (NABU and SAPO — Ed.) are ready to destroy what Ukraine has been building for years: the national security system, agent networks, unique operational assets. And in effect to gift the enemy with the nullification of the results of many years of work by Ukrainian intelligence services,” Duka stated.

He called NABU and SAPO employees “random people who today, under the slogans of fighting corruption, use the powers granted by the state to settle personal scores, work in favor of the enemy, rocking the country from within, substituting staged action films for real evidence.”

Regarding ties with representatives of “Khimprom,” Duka also stated that he cannot publicly disclose information about agents, methods of work, and classified operations. Thus, he made it clear that the contacts could have been used to conduct covert operations on the territory of Russia.

Duka also proposed that the heads of NABU and SAPO hold a public discussion, and that parliament study the materials of criminal cases concerning them.

“In particular, the grounds for closing criminal proceedings whose materials include Semen Kryvonos, Oleksandr Klymenko and their subordinates, as well as the opening of criminal proceedings and the immediate dismissal from office of the persons who investigated their crimes, should become the subject of parliamentary oversight,” Duka stated.

Meanwhile, SAPO reported that 44 million hryvnias (about €863 thousand) of the required 65 million bail had already been paid for Duka. The funds came from 1,113 payers in small amounts: from 110 to 20 thousand hryvnias.

We wrote in more detail about the political background of the “Carthage” case in a separate article. We also examined what consequences this case could have.