SBU does not consider Savchenko's contacts with DPR, LPR leaders in Minsk criminally punishable
KYIV. Dec 12 (Interfax) - Ukrainian people's deputy Nadiya Savchenko (the Batkivshchyna faction) confirmed to investigators from the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) that she has visited Minsk and talked to the leaders of the self-proclaimed Donbas republics Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky there, head of the SBU administration Oleksandr Tkachuk said in a commentary to Interfax on Monday.
He said that the fact of talks was not criminally punishable from the legal point of view. "The only moment that she has really most likely breached is the secrecy regime. All our people's deputies are provided with the current access to state secrets. She is obliged to inform the secrecy regime body in the institution, where she works, - in this case the Supreme Rada administration, of her intention to travel abroad," the chief of the SBU administration said.
"Naturally, if she had informed us in advance about her intention to travel to Belarus in order to take part in such talks, our Service could have also definitely been interested in this information and we would have certainly talked to her in advance," Tkachuk also said.
At that, he said that Savchenko "is not an envoy, a representative of the Ukrainian side in the discussion of any issues related to the release of hostages."
Replying to the question as to how this meeting may impact the progress of the negotiating process, Tkachuk said: "We are afraid that such talks, when the position of the so-called negotiator, who assigned [for this position] herself, may harm those agreements, which have already been reached with representatives of the other side. Why? Because she could not know the details of those agreements which have been reached, and if she promised something there, how will these promises will be fulfilled? If she demanded something from them, on what grounds?"
The parliamentarian told the SBU investigators about the fact of the meeting with the DPR and LPR leaders at an interrogation as a witness as part of the criminal inquiry into the creating of the DPR on Monday, he said.
However, he said that Savchenko had arrived at the SBU of her own accord. "She agreed in good faith to arrive at the SBU and give testimony in this criminal inquiry," Tkachuk said.
