The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on Tuesday has denied media reports claiming the agency was planning to conduct a search in Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko's home in Kyiv after a group of law enforcers were spotted outside the apartment block where the mayor resides.
That's according to SBU press secretary Artem Dekhtiarenko who spoke with UNIAN.
"The SBU is not conducting searches in Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko's home," the spokesman said.
According to Dehtiarenko, SBU operatives with the agency's Main Directorate for Combating Corruption and Organized Crime, with the involvement of the Alfa SWAT team, are conducting searches within the framework of criminal proceedings on counterfeit petroleum products.
"They're taking place in several locations simultaneously, including in the block where Vitaliy Klitschko resides. We will follow up on the details of the raid. The searches have nothing to do with Mr. Klitschko," the SBU spokesman said.
- Armed law enforcers have been deployed on Bohdan Khmelnytsky Street downtown Kyiv, to the house where city Mayor Vitaly Klitschko resides, Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov reported Tuesday morning, adding that the mayor was on a morning workout and has not been confronted by the group.
- Having returned from the workout, Klitschko said he was set to figure out what was happening, adding that this might be part of what he claims is a political pressure campaign against Kyiv authorities, including himself.
- "Now they can't dig up anything ... I'd like to say that we're absolutely open, transparent, and convinced that those who order such things will be fully brought to account," the mayor emphasized.
