Russia returns detained Ukrainian Security Service officer to Ukraine
KYIV. April 8 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian Security Service will thoroughly examine all circumstances of its officer Yury Ivanchenko's unsanctioned departure for Russia, where he was detained earlier by the Federal Security Service (FSB), and has already been returned to Ukrainian special services.
"He is in Ukrainian territory already, and our officers are working with him. We took him back at a checkpoint in the Sumy region, and are looking into all reasons and circumstances to find out why he left Ukrainian territory in violation of the norms and rules regulating a Security Service officer's conduct," Ukrainian Security Service chief, Vasyl Hrytsak, said, at a news briefing in Kyiv on Friday.
Ivanchenko took leave on March 10, 2016, and simultaneously submitted a report asking for permission to travel to Russia, to visit a sick relative, he said.
"His mom had already been in Russia at the time, where she had gone on August 31, 2015. The report was left without consideration, but he left Ukrainian territory without permission and went to Russia, where he was expectedly detained. He told them all sorts of things there," Hrytsak said.
"Nobody sent him there, and he will get what he deserves," he said.
Ivanchenko served in the antiterrorist operation (ATO) zone in the Summer of 2014, Hrytsak said. The officer "was under the internal security directorate's control, his unauthorized departure outside Ukraine was recorded back in April 2011, he was deprived of access to classified information in May 2011, and an inquiry against him was continued."
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) reported at the end of March, that it exposed a Ukrainian counterintelligence officer, whom the Ukrainian Security Service and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had tried to use as a decoy to be recruited by Russian special services.
Hrytsak had confirmed at the end of March that a Ukrainian Security Service officer had been held in Russia, adding that his presence there was unsanctioned, and that he did not have access to classified information.
