SBI and SBU search the home of Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center head
The State Bureau of Investigation and the Security Service of Ukraine searched the home of Dmytro Bulakh, the head of the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center, who is currently serving in the National Guard of Ukraine.
The authorities demanded details related to his military service, the Center wrote on Facebook on April 10.
The law enforcers searched Dmytro's apartment following a court warrant.
Dmytro Bulakh reported that his phone was seized and searched, but the officers found nothing.
Screenshot of Dmytro Bulakh's Facebook post. Photo by Yulia Napolska
The Anti-Corruption Center notes that Dmytro Bulakh volunteered to enlist in the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the spring of 2023 and now serves in a National Guard unit.
"But there have been some strange things happening since the summer of 2022, which he did not disclose at the time so as not to harm the society's morale. Tere was abuse of the draft and recruiting mechanism, mobilization 'upon request', if you like," the statement reads.
They quoted Dmytro as saying that in 2022, when he was sick with pneumonia, employees of the Department of Strategic Investigations and an enlistment office representative visited him and handed him a draft notice. At the time, the activist was already registered with the Kyiv district enlistment office in Kharkiv, but he still went and received a draft notice, passed the physical check and fell ill with pneumonia again in the process. After a while, Dmytro enlisted in the National Guard himself.
Dmytro stresses that he is aware of several incidents when people in Kharkiv were handed a draft notice "upon request", which all happened through the same enlistment office.
At that time, Dmytro did not disclose this event so as not to demoralize the people of Kharkiv. This time he decided to speak out about it on social media, especially after the recent persecution of Ukrainian activists and journalists. In his opinion, correcting these abuses will be the best marker of change in the government's approach to mobilization, as opposed to thousands of words and bills.
The Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center considers the search situation as "a continuation of the pressure campaign targeting representatives of Ukraine's public sector."
"After the incidents with the Bihus.Info team, the head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, Vitaliy Shabunin, the Slidstvo.Info investigator Yevheniy Shulhat, the Chesno Movement editor-in-chief Oleksandr Salizhenko, representatives of the authorities stage an unexciting spy action non-movie in Kharkiv – during the third year of the big war, on the orders of the same authorities, using the taxpayers' money," the post reads.
Oleksandr Bilka, a spokesman for the Poltava branch of the SBI, told Suspilne that the SBI was carrying out a pre-trial investigation into potential enlistment-related abuses based the information provided by the SBU.
"As part of this investigation, the Bureau is investigating possible abuse of authority by the command of a National Guard unit stationed in the Kharkiv oblast. On April 10, 2024, the SBI and the SBU carried out authorized investigative operations in the unit and at the apartment of one of the defendants, who is a representative of an anti-corruption NGO. No items related to the work of the NGO were seized during the searches," said Bilka.
Who is Dmytro Bulakh?
Dmytro Bulakh is a Kharkiv activist, military officer and the head of the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center. In August 2022, Dmytro and the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center were the first to report on the scandalous UAH 7.5 million tender deal for the development of the Sarzhyn Yar Park, starting a fight to oppose the construction together with the city's residents. On August 14, it was announced that the tender would be canceled and the construction would be moved to another area of the city.
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