500 wagons of humanitarian aid: NABU found no evidence of involvement in the theft of officials of the Zaporizhzhya Police Department

Loudly announced on August 30, 2022 by the Security Service of Ukraine and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, a joint investigation in criminal proceedings into the theft of humanitarian aid from the United States does not seem to have yielded results.

Let us remember that at that time we were talking about the possible involvement of officials of the Zaporozhye region in this: the chairman of the Zaporozhye OVA Alexander Starukh, the secretary of the Zaporozhye City Council Anatoly Kurtev, the deputy of the Zaporozhye City Council Viktor Shcherbina and the deputy chairman of the Zaporozhye OVA Zlata Nekrasova.

Law enforcement officers even conducted searches at their places of residence and workplaces.

In addition, NABU “freelance agent” Yevgeny Shevchenko then claimed that other high-ranking officials could also be involved in this large-scale theft of American “humanitarian aid”.

However, after a year and a half of investigation, it seems that no evidence of this was found, and the case was transferred to the NPU. And, according to the Code of Criminal Procedure, the National Police cannot investigate crimes where government officials are suspects.

“In December 2023, jurisdiction in the specified criminal proceedings was determined by the Main Investigation Department of the National Police,” this is stated in the response of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau to the publication’s information request.

When asked about the progress of the investigation and whether the statements of the “freelance agent” of NABU Shevchenko were checked, the NABU Department of Communications and External Relations refused to answer, citing the impossibility of providing information without the written permission of the investigator or prosecutor.

This indicates that the criminal proceedings were transferred to the Main Investigation Department of the National Police for only one reason: evidence of involvement in the theft of officials of the Zaporizhzhya OVA or the President’s Office in NABU, which clearly cannot be suspected of Bankova’s sentimentality, was never found.

The absence of government officials among those involved in the case automatically led to a change in jurisdiction and the transfer of materials to the police.