Today, the Security Service of Ukraine celebrates its professional holiday amidst explosions of enemy missiles and air raids. Some media outlets, citing their own sources, have managed to link these two events. They say that the Russians thus “congratulated” one of Ukraine’s main strategic decision-making centres, which prevents the occupiers from winning this war. Since Ukraine gained its independence, the SSU has had more than a dozen leaders. To be precise, the current acting head, Major General Vasyl Malyuk, is the 16th in this list.
The head of the Security Service of Ukraine is replaced immediately after a new president comes to power. Under some presidents, the head could change several times. The status and powers of the head of this agency are defined by the Constitution and Article 13 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Security Service of Ukraine”. The Head of the Security Service of Ukraine is appointed and dismissed by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine upon the proposal of the President of Ukraine.
The year 2019 was no exception. Unexpectedly for everyone, the country’s leading security service was headed by Lieutenant Ivan Bakanov, a friend and business partner of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
He replaced General Vasyl Hrytsak, who headed the SBU from June 2015 to the end of August 2019. At the end of 2019, the sixth president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, dismissed Hrytsak from military service to the SBU reserve.
Since then, the general has hardly appeared in the public eye. The last time journalists wrote about him was during the conflict with Bigus Info, when the publication accused the general of organising surveillance of the editorial staff.
Hrytsak denied the accusations at the time.
on 25 October 2019, the High Anti-Corruption Court ordered the NABU to open proceedings involving the former head of the SBU. He was charged with a number of articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, including abuse of office, abuse of power, espionage and even treason.
However, the proceedings were not registered. Subsequently, the proceedings on the possible commission of a criminal offence by Hrytsak were registered in the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations.
In 2020, the former head of the SBU again came to the attention of Bigus Info journalists. They recorded that the general arrived at the birthday party of Pavlo Demchyn, former deputy head of the SBU and former head of the so-called “Department K” of the Main Department for Combating Corruption and Organised Crime, in a Land Cruiser with special licence plates, although he was no longer entitled to cover plates after his dismissal.
In March 2021, recordings of an alleged conversation between OPFL leader Viktor Medvedchuk and former Russian presidential aide Vladislav Surkov were published on the Internet. They mentioned the name of the former head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Vasyl Hrytsak, and his alleged contacts with the “Minister of Defence of the DPR”, Volodymyr Kononov, in 2014. The former head of the SBU confirmed that he had been in contact with Kononov, but the issue concerned the exchange of prisoners.
Nowadays, Vasyl Hrytsak is not mentioned at all. Our interlocutors say that the general continued to advise his successor, Ivan Bakanov, and even during this period had his own office at 33 Volodymyrska Street. There is currently no way to confirm or deny this information.
At the same time, the SBU is not commenting on whether the career of the general, who started his career as a driver of the economic department of the KGB in Rivne region, is over.
On 15 March 2024, on the Dostup do Pravdy website, where anyone can publicly send a request to government authorities at all levels, a certain Pavlo Sherman asked about the status of Vasyl Hrytsak in the Security Service of Ukraine.
“Please inform me about the position, salary and range of functional responsibilities in accordance with the job description of the former head of the SBU Vasyl Hrytsak in the Security Service of Ukraine.”
The response from the Security Service of Ukraine was concise and comprehensive:
“Based on the results of the processing, we inform you that the request is denied, as the information you requested contains information that is not public within the meaning of the Law of Ukraine “On Access to Public Information” and is classified as restricted information.”
– the leading law enforcement agency replied, neither confirming nor denying the information that Vasyl Hrytsak continues to work in the SBU.
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