On Tuesday, Ukraine’s anti-graft agencies charged Ilya Vityuk, a brigadier general at the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), for illegal enrichment – essentially accusing him of taking bribes.
The SBU hit back, issuing a statement the same evening accusing the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) of “selective justice.”
The incident marked the latest escalation of tensions between the agencies – part of a chain of events that led to a rare, nationwide wartime protest.
The charges laid on Vityuk were also a distant call from the past. Here’s what happened.
Background events
In short: The SBU arrested NABU officials on alleged Russian ties in July, which the government used as a pretext for pushing a bill curbing NABU and SAPO’s independence.
Ukrainians were not happy and protested. The government caved in and retracted most of the bill.
But tensions remain, with the SBU standing by the arrests as NABU and SAPO chiefs hint at a broader conspiracy to oust them.
(To understand how Ukraine’s anti-corruption ecosystem is designed to function – and why the now-retracted bill angered so many Ukrainians – in this Kyiv Post explainer.)
Vityuk’s bribery accusations
NABU and SAPO now accuse a senior SBU official of taking bribes.
In a Tuesday press release, NABU – without naming Vityuk – claimed his family could not account for part of the money used to purchase their apartment, while the verified funds were traced to another suspect in an embezzlement case involving Ukrzaliznytsia, Ukraine’s state-owned railway.
The press release says the apartment was purchased for Hr.21.6 million (around $522,000) with a stated value of Hr.12.8 million (around $310,000) on the contract.
Vityuk’s family member – presumably his wife – said the funds were received as payment for her legal consulting services, which NABU claimed “came from a person suspected of embezzling funds from JSC Ukrzaliznytsia as part of a criminal organized group, as well as from companies controlled by the said person.”
NABU argues that there is no evidence that the services were actually provided, while another Hr.8.8 million (around $213,000) used to buy the apartment remains unaccounted for.
The SBU hits back
The SBU, in a Tuesday press release, calls the charges against Vityuk retaliation for earlier arrests of NABU officials.
“The SBU perceives such actions as a response to the Service’s well-founded detention of several employees of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau at the end of July this year,” it says.
The SBU argued that the charges against Vityuk took NABU more than a year and a half to bring, suggesting the timing points to retaliation.
Zlata Symonenko, an attorney and board member of the Ukrainian Bar Association, as well as a former member of the NABU Oversight Council, previously told Kyiv Post that “the average time for investigating top corruption is two to three years.”
But the SBU also provided arguments against NABU’s charges, arguing that the anti-corruption agency had overlooked the following:
- Multiple expert reports, including NABU’s own, rejected claims that the apartment was bought at an undervalued price.
- National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) inspections found no signs of illicit enrichment in Vityuk’s family.
- Vityuk’s wife’s legal business income, confirmed by state examinations, was used for the purchase.
- Witness testimony, despite investigative pressure, contradicted the prosecution’s case.
The intelligence agency also highlighted Vityuk’s role in defending Ukraine against the Russian invasion, highlighting his former role as the head of cybersecurity before fighting on the front between 2024 and 2025.
Who is Ilya Vityuk?
Vityuk served as the SBU’s head of cybersecurity, responsible for countering Russian hacking and disinformation.
He also oversaw the investigation and response to the 2023 Russian cyberattack on Kyivstar, one of Ukraine’s largest telecom operators.
Ironically, it was the very same scandal that led to Vityuk’s de facto demotion from the head of cybersecurity in 2024.
In April 2024, a Ukrainian outlet reported on Vityuk’s apartment – the same case now pursued by NABU. He allegedly pressured the journalist by directing an SBU operative to have a military recruitment officer deliver the journalist a mobilization notice at a shopping mall.
The same month, Vityuk was also accused of filming the Berkut riot police during the 2014 Euromaidan as an SBU operative but failed to deliver the video and report the incident as required by law, according to Ukrainian outlet Babel’s report at the time.
President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Vityuk from his position in May 2024 via a presidential decree, where the latter was then sent to defend Ukraine on the front as a combatant.