Ukraine accuses three senior police and security officials over criminal ring

Key facts

• NABU said it served notices of suspicion on a first deputy department head in the SBU domestic security service.
• A department head and a deputy section chief in the National Police were also formally accused, NABU said.
• Two other alleged organizers were informed of charges; none of the suspects was named.
• NABU said the organization included at least 7 other people and it was drawing up further charges.
• The investigation is code-named Carthage and targets a network NABU said had protection from senior officials.
• Kyrylo Budanov, Zelenskiy's chief of staff, wrote that positions and titles cannot be a basis for avoiding responsibility.

Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau, known as NABU, said on November 5 that it had formally accused three senior officials from the country's police and security service of involvement in a criminal ring engaged in fraud, drug sales and production of counterfeit currency and cigarettes. The agency said it served notices of suspicion on a first deputy department head in the SBU domestic security service, a department head and a deputy section chief in the National Police. Two other alleged organizers were also informed of charges. None of the suspects was named.

NABU had released details on November 4 of what it said was a wide-ranging investigation into a network operating with assistance and protection from senior security and law enforcement officials. The agency said it was in the process of drawing up charges against other members of the organization, which it said included at least 7 other people. The investigation is code-named Carthage.

In a statement on November 5, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief of staff, Kyrylo Budanov, said the situation required timely, strong action. "The law is the same for all," Budanov wrote on social media. "Positions, titles and powers cannot be a basis for avoiding responsibility."

The case is the latest to target senior Ukrainian officials as the country seeks to eradicate graft as part of its ambitions to join the European Union.