NABU reports illegal wiretapping of head of unit investigating corruption in defense sector

Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau Semеn Kryvonos claims that one of the law enforcement agencies installed illegal wiretapping at the home of the head of one of the department's divisions. The official said this said during a public report on the work of the NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption prosecutor's Office.

According to him, a few weeks ago, NABU recorded that the head of a unit investigating corruption in the defense sector was "absolutely illegally" bugged by employees of a law enforcement agency with electrical equipment she was installing in her home.

The official did not specify which agency he was referring to, but added that "they already know that we know about them." Kryvonos also said that the wiretap was placed without any court order, and that a construction worker was involved in the installation of the equipment at the woman's home.

ADDED. In the official statement of the NABU stated that the work of this unit includes cases of fraud in the procurement of drones, and its head is a member of the detective group in the Midas case. The agency added that it had launched a pre-trial investigation on the wiretapping.

"What were they going to listen to at the head of the unit's house? But they also committed a crime before that. I just want them to hear it now, too, that we know they committed it. And they doubled down [on the crime] by writing that they had nothing to do with it at all. [...] They continue to combine, collect information, put pressure on people – we know the names of these comrades, and who is doing it, we are assessing it. That is, they are doing it illegally, first and foremost," Kryvonos said.

He also stated that in sync with this "wiretapping," over the past three weeks, NABU has been receiving information that "a whole apparatus" of several law enforcement agencies has been collecting information in a non-procedural manner. According to the official, in parallel with this, "a wave" of media campaigns against his agency has started again.

When asked whether the Security Service of Ukraine was collecting the data, Kryvonos said that NABU was currently conducting certain investigative actions, and he was not ready to talk about it.

"But when we hand over the relevant procedural documents to certain people, I will tell you who is collecting it," he concluded.

• In November 2025, during a court hearing on Operation Midas, the SAPO prosecutor claimed that Mindich (a former business partner and friend of President Zelenskyy, a suspect in the case) had influenced the current NSDC secretary Umerov when he was defense minister. In response, the official denied this information.

• Later, Umerov's press service reported that he had testified to the NABU and has witness status.

• In December, NABU detective Magamedrasulov said regarding Operation Midas, which exposed large-scale corruption in the energy sector, that initially this and other cases were planned for the Ministry of Defense.