It is the law enforcement agencies that should give an assessment of what has happened / Photo from the SBI
Taran said such actions could lead to a possible leak of classified information.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Andriy Taran says the actions of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) to seize microwave devices at air defense military units are undermining their combat readiness.
"The information I have lets me conclude the following: inconsistent actions of military counterintelligence officers and other structures concerned have resulted in the undermining of the air defense units' combat readiness, as well as a possible leak of classified information," he said during a Q&A hour at the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, on July 3, 2020, an UNIAN correspondent reports.
According to Taran, it is the law enforcement agencies that should give an assessment of what has happened.
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"As for the SBI's actions, the Defense Ministry does not make any legal assessment of them. The ministry's legal experts are now considering the possibility of lodging a case with the relevant agencies," he said.
"The Defense Ministry does not carry out a pretrial investigation. The only thing we can do is to conduct an internal investigation. And it is the SBU Security Service of Ukraine that should probe into where the information from the equipment was leaked to," he added.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on July 2, the command of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said SBI officers had seized microwave devices for air defense missiles' guidance system during searches at military units, which could undermine the state's defense.
"In case of failure of the air defense systems, the stock of microwave devices allows to quickly restore their combat effectiveness. The lack of the seized microwave may lead to undesirable consequences and significantly increase the recovery time for military equipment that covers the airspace and important strategic facilities of the state," the command said.
The Air Force Command called on law enforcement agencies to make decisions that would not contradict the national interests of the state, adding "nobody interferes with an unbiased probe into the case."
In turn, the SBI said it would conduct an official investigation whether its officers had acted in keeping with law while examining the military equipment at a military unit of the Air Force outside the capital city of Kyiv.