NABU Director confirms that Shurma's place was searched in Germany

Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau Semen Kryvonos confirmed the search of former deputy head of the Presidential Office Rostyslav Shurma's home in Germany. The official told about it in an interview with the Ukrainian service of the British BBC News.

"I honestly don't remember [when the search took place]. But recently, before July 22 this year," Kryvonos said.

At the same time, he refused to answer what exactly this case concerns, as "the procedural formalization of cooperation and the transfer of relevant evidence from foreign colleagues are underway."

The head of the NABU also said that the search was carried out at the request of the agency to the German side.

"There are two formats of cooperation. There is the format of a joint investigation team, and there is a request for international legal assistance. We usually send it to the prosecutor's office. Their prosecutor general's Office assigns the case to a certain law enforcement agency. Often, it is similar in function to the NABU or the unit responsible for such investigations. In this case, we sent a request, asked to conduct such an investigative action, agreed and carried it out," said Kryvonos.

Earlier, on July 25, about the searches in Shurma's house in the suburbs of Munich wrote Ukrainska Pravda, citing interlocutors among MPs.

According to media reports, on the morning of July 15, NABU, together with German law enforcement, conducted searches and seized the phone of the former deputy head of the Andriy Yermak.

UP claims Shurma's searches were one of the last straws for the president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who, just a week later, publicly accused NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption prosecutor's Office of "inefficiency" and signed the law about a significant restriction on the independence of these bodies.

• Shurma was in charge of the economic bloc in the Presidential Office.

• In August 2023, Bihus.Info journalists reported that solar power plants under Russian occupation were co-owned by Shurma's entourage, received payment at the "green tariff" until the summer of 2023, although they probably had no connection to Ukraine's unified energy system.

• President Zelenskyy fires Shurma in September 2024.