Ukrainian parliamentarian Nadiia Savchenko has given evidence to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) regarding her visit to the territory of Donbas uncontrolled by Kyiv, SBU chief Vasyl Hrytsak said.
“She came to questioning once and then she rescheduled the questioning because she was told she was probably busy. When she came to be questioned again, it was several days ago, she testified,” Hrytsak told reporters in Cherkassy on March 10.
Hrytsak said the visit had not been approved by the SBU.
“At the same time, I want to say that Nadiia Savchenko on most issues cited Article 63 of the Constitution, as the head of the investigative division. If you remember, there was information that she [Savchenko] took part in firing practice on the territory of the DPR. She denied that,” Hrytsak said.
Commenting on information provided by Savchenko saying she had visited the territory uncontrolled by Kyiv as a result of a special operation, Hrytsak said: “There was no special operation, at least one in which SBU could be involved. She did not get approval for that visit from anyone from the state authorities, including the administration of the national special service.”
The SBU chief said he does not approve of Savchenko’s visit to Donbas. “I will never believe that her stay there took place without a blessing from various curators, including from the territory of our eastern neighbor from Moscow,” he said.
In February, Savchenko and Volodymyr Ruban, the head of the Officer Corps center for the exchange of prisoners-of-war, arrived in Donetsk and then a penitentiary colony in Makiyivka, where Ukrainian prisoners were kept.
On March 1, Savchenko said on 112 Ukraine television that the crossing of the dividing line during her visit to the DPR was “a planned special operation.” She declined to give the details of this operation, saying that “special operations are special operations because they are not disclosed before or after” they are conducted.
