The pattern the agencies describe is one of protection rackets run from inside the institutions meant to suppress them.
Ukraine's Security Service, the SBU, has dismissed two senior officials after anti-corruption investigators widened a probe into an alleged criminal network that reached into the country's law enforcement agencies. According to TRT World, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) said the investigation, known as Operation Carthage, had uncovered an organisation involving at least a dozen people.
The agencies allege that the suspected ringleader, who had several previous convictions, recruited officials from the SBU, the National Police and the Prosecutor General's Office, alongside figures from the criminal underworld. Investigators say the network used its connections inside law enforcement to shield illegal businesses, including fraudulent call centres targeting Ukrainian and foreign citizens, drug trafficking, and the production of counterfeit cigarettes and foreign currency. SAPO further accused members of the group of carrying out attacks, abductions and assaults on the organisation's behalf.
The SBU said its chief, Oleksandr Poklad, had dismissed two high-ranking officials and pledged full cooperation. "The Security Service expects a transparent, objective, and impartial investigation," Poklad said, adding that he had discussed the case with the heads of NABU and SAPO. He also said the agency was coordinating with intelligence services in partner countries so the investigation could extend to other jurisdictions. The National Police said officers implicated in the proceedings had been temporarily suspended and urged the public not to draw premature conclusions before the investigation was completed.
The case is not an isolated shock to the system. In September, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko was dismissed amid the same probe, after anti-corruption investigators alleged that a criminal organisation was led by a department head within the Prosecutor General's Office. Members of the suspected network are accused of taking bribes from fraudulent call centres in exchange for allowing them to operate without interference. The pattern the agencies describe is one of protection rackets run from inside the institutions meant to suppress them.
The timing gives the affair its political weight. Ukraine's efforts to join the European Union formally entered negotiations in June 2024, and tackling corruption remains a key requirement of the accession process. Brussels has long treated judicial and law enforcement integrity as a benchmark rather than a formality, and each new case cuts both ways: it demonstrates that anti-corruption bodies can act against powerful institutions, but it also confirms that such networks exist. The dismissals and the pledge of cooperation are the visible part of the response. What is not yet known is how far the investigation will reach, whether the two dismissed officials face formal charges, and what the promised cooperation with partner countries will produce. Until then, the public has the agencies' account and the National Police's caution against premature conclusions.
