SBU establishes direct connection between former Yanukovych-era minister and Kadyrov’s associate
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Ukraine's SBU security service has uncovered direct communications between Dmytro Tabachnyk, a former Minister of Education during Viktor Yanukovych’s administration, and a representative of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), as well as an associate of Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov, in a statement on Telegram on May 12.
The SBU claims that Tabachnyk was in direct “contact” with Oleg Kozlov, a staff member of the 9th Directorate of the Operational Information Department of the 5th Service of the FSB.
According to the SBU, Tabachnyk played an active role in organizing fake referendums in the occupied regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhya oblasts and implemented Moscow’s orders for the “reformatting” of the educational and medical sectors to serve the aggressor country. Most educational institutions and hospitals in the region were converted into barracks for the Russian occupation army under his leadership.
Tabachnyk was also caught engaging in criminal activities with Murad Saidov, believed to be Kadyrov’s representative in the occupied areas of Zaporizhzhya Oblast. In April of last year, they organized the export of agricultural machinery from local agro-holdings to Crimea.
Tabachnyk has been charged under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:
- Article 111-2 (complicity to the state-aggressor);
- Article 438 (violation of laws and customs of war).
At the end of November 2022, Tabachnyk was charged with state treason. According to an investigation, he organized and coordinated the activities of Volodymyr Saldo and Yevhen Balytskyi (leaders of the occupational puppet authorities created in Kherson and Zaporizhzhya oblasts) “in the field of health care, education, and preparation for (fake) ‘referendums’.”
In January 2023, the SBU seized over $2 million of Tabachnyk’s assets. He is also suspected of embezzlement of property through abuse of official position.
Tabachnyk fled to Russia in 2015, and has since obtained Russian citizenship.
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