SSU General Pointed Gun at Detectives and Smashed Phones as Alpha Unit Moved In, NABU Officer Says

The head of a detective unit at the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine has described how a senior general of the Security Service of Ukraine threatened his team with a handgun and smashed electronic devices with a hammer during a search of his property, while officers from the SSU's Alpha special forces unit attempted to shield him from arrest.

Oleksandr Abakumov gave the account on the UP.Chat programme on Ukrainska Pravda's YouTube channel. He said investigators had arrived at the home of Serhii Duka, First Deputy Head of the SSU's Department for the Protection of National Statehood, located outside the city, to carry out a search under a court warrant. Several officers from NABU's Special Operations Department were assigned to provide security for the operation.

According to Abakumov, when a NABU special forces officer tried to climb over the fence to open the gate, unidentified individuals aimed laser-sighted weapons at him and threatened to open fire. Two armed SSU officers carrying assault rifles stood at the windows of the house, while the general himself appeared at a first-floor window holding a handgun.

Abakumov said he tried to defuse the standoff with a loudspeaker, telling those inside: 'This is the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine; we are law enforcement officers.' He said he showed his identification and the court order and urged the general not to create a dangerous situation by pointing weapons at officers from other law enforcement agencies.

There was no response, Abakumov said. Instead, the general ran out onto the balcony and began smashing phones with a hammer, completely destroying two phones and wrecking a hard drive.

Three vans carrying armed officers from the SSU's Alpha special forces unit later arrived at the scene and behaved aggressively, Abakumov said. NABU believes the officers were assessing the detectives' positions in preparation for an attempt to free the general by force and evacuate him. A shootout between the two agencies was avoided only after lengthy negotiations and the arrival of Duka's lawyers, after which the general was detained.

Abakumov added that during the operation, detectives documented the transfer of four cryptocurrency wallets containing around US$3 million to Duka. In exchange, the general had allegedly agreed to secure the release of funds belonging to the Russian Khimprom drug trafficking cartel that had been frozen by the authorities, acting through the Office of the Prosecutor General.

The confrontation unfolded on 4 November, when NABU first reported that a senior SSU official had threatened to use firearms and refused to let detectives into a search location ordered by an investigating judge of the High Anti-Corruption Court. Ukrainska Pravda journalists identified the official as Duka, and later that day NABU and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office released details of Operation Carthage, which targeted a criminal organisation involving law enforcement leadership engaged in drug trafficking, abductions and protection for scam call centres. Duka was detained that afternoon in the village of Roslavychi in Kyiv Oblast, and searches were also conducted at premises belonging to Anton Kravchuk, Head of the SSU's Main Department of Internal Security. That evening, SSU Head Oleksandr Poklad dismissed the officers who had become subjects of the investigation.

Five members of the criminal organisation have been served with notices of suspicion. Investigators say the group, organised by Andrii Osipov, a man with multiple previous convictions, recruited serving senior officials from the SSU, the Prosecutor General's Office and the National Police, along with criminal underworld figures, allowing scam call centres targeting Ukrainians and foreigners to operate freely alongside drug trafficking, the illegal manufacture of counterfeit cigarettes and the production of counterfeit foreign currency. Members of the group were also involved in assaults, abductions and the infliction of bodily harm. Duka has been charged under Article 255.3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which covers participation in a criminal organisation.