More than 30 raids are under way across Ukraine in a move to prevent bribery of voters.
The searches are being conducted by agents of the SBU and the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) in the framework of a criminal proceeding in order to prevent the creation of electoral pyramids, Deputy Chief of Ukraine’s SBU Security Service Viktor Kononenko said at a briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.
Kononenko said the searches did not involve political parties’ offices.
Earlier on Thursday, Vitaliy Riabtsev, spokesman for Batkivschyna Party leader and presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko said on Facebook that SBU agents, prosecutors and the SBI agents were searching Tymoshenko’s staff volunteers in Zaporizhia region.
“The morning began with raids. Agents of the Zaporizhia regional prosecutor’s office and the SBU are conducting large-scale searches of volunteers at Tymoshenko’s headquarters. I, as a proxy for the candidate in the 75th district, am on my way there,” Riabtsev said on Facebook.
The Kyiv-based ezine Ukrayinska Pravda, reporting from the SBI, confirmed that searches were taking place in Zaporizhia region, but did not say whether they were related to Tymoshenko or her party.
