Hromadske says SBU’s FSB provocation statement discredits their investigation

Hromadske views the statement by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on the media outlet’s investigation into the family of the chief of SBU’s Odesa department, Viktor Dorovskyi, to be discrediting, hromadske reports.

The hromadske investigation concerned the Russian citizenship held by Viktor Dorovskyi’s wife Oksana Dorovska, as well as her assets and business ties.

However, the SBU told NV that the police had recorded an attempt by Russia’s FSB to stage a provocation targeting Viktor Dorovskyi in order to trigger his dismissal. The Security Service told the news outlet that a Russian agent had contacted Dorovskyi’s wife, threatening to promote fabricated “dirt” through the media and Telegram channels. According to the investigators, the Russian agent suggested that Dorovska could “stop” the information attack if she could obtain $250 thousand.

The SBU added that “the Russian special service is trying to ‘covertly’ use Ukrainian media for their psyops.” “So we call on the media to check the information and its sources carefully before release so as not to promote Russian narratives,” the special service said.

In turn, the hromadske investigation team stressed that if the FSB had indeed threatened Oksana Dorovska, the team hopes for a proper probe into these facts.

The journalists pointed out that the video shared with NV by the SBU where Oksana Dorovska allegedly talks with an FSB operative has no identifiable date of origin. In addition, the clip, as well as the SBU’s accompanying comments, are not available on the Service’s official resources.

“So hromadske has questions about the video’s authenticity, the date of its creation, as well as the reasons for this footage surfacing today, 22 December,” the team said.

The news outlet also remarked that the SBU had previously reported in a comment to Ukrainska Pravda that Dorovskyi’s wife allegedly started to receive threats on 27 March 2025.

“Why the SBU decided to disclose this on the day that the hromadske investigation was released is unclear,” the investigators added.

The hromadske team confirmed that the facts featured in the Viktor Dorovskyi investigation are accurate. Moreover, hromadske pointed out that the SBU’s explanations published by Ukrainska Pravda were taken into account as the investigation was being written.

“Still, hromadske views the SBU’s report as an attempt to discredit the hromadske investigation that had been in the works since August 2025. The Security Service of Ukraine had been aware of the upcoming release of this material since at least 31 October 2025,” the statement said.

Investigator journalist Yaroslava Volvach, who published the team’s statement, clarified that it was on 31 October 2025 that the news outlet first addressed the SBU with a query, asking Viktor Dorovskyi to answer some questions, in particular regarding his wife’s Cyprus-based business, which was managed and legally supported by the company PMS MERCURY CORPORATE SERVICES LTD, run by lawyers at Sophocleus and their colleagues, whom Ukraine has introduced sanctions against.

“This firm has been the secretary of the company owned by Oksana Dorovska, CHANELO LIMITED, for over three years. A few days after the investigators contacted the SBU, on 4 November 2025, Sophocleus was excluded from the structure of Oksana Dorovska’s company. Oksana Dorovska’s company also changed its legal address on 4 November: before Hromadske’s query, it shared the address with the companies of the sanctioned lawyers.

“Such actions suggest that Viktor Dorovskyi’s family tried to conceal the facts discovered by Hromadske journalists,” the investigation’s authors emphasised.

The media outlet added that the Hromadske investigation team consistently reviews the assets and business ties of employees of all law enforcement agencies, including SBU officials.