Ukraine’s State Investigative Bureau destroyed secret documents pertaining to major criminal cases, including against leading political figures, hours before and after Russia’s invasion in February, three law enforcement sources told Current Time. It is unclear whether the documents were destroyed to prevent them from falling into the hands of Russian forces or to hinder prosecution of the cases. The material destroyed involved investigations into former President Petro Poroshenko; Viktor Medvedchuk, a deputy who is a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin; as well as Oleksandr Yakimenko, the former head of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) who ordered the shooting of protesters in Kyiv in 2014. The State Investigative Bureau, which probes non-corruption crimes committed by top officials and is similar to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), said it could not immediately comment on the allegations and requested 20 working days to respond. However, the Prosecutor-General’s Office on July 8 confirmed in a statement to Current Time that “some material containing secret information from the criminal cases in question…was destroyed by the Department of Information Security of the State Investigative Bureau.” The office added that prosecutors working on the cases “were not consulted about the destruction of the material.” The Prosecutor-General’s Office added that prosecutors are currently attempting to reconstruct the destroyed information using archived case files. (…) The material destroyed also included an investigation into former President Viktor Yanukovych’s controversial 2010 deal with former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, as well as a probe into the repeated transfer of military equipment, including fighter jets and helicopters, to Russia between 1992 and 2014 that undermined Ukraine’s armed forces, the sources said.
via rferl: Protection Or Cover-Up? Ukraine Destroyed Secret Documents In Major Criminal Cases As Russia Invaded