KYIV — Ukraine's president has turned publicly on his own security service. In his evening address on Saturday, November 7, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy promised more 'personnel decisions' at the SBU, Ukraine's domestic security service, after anti-corruption authorities unveiled charges this week against several senior security and law-enforcement officials over their alleged role in shielding a vast criminal ring, Reuters reported. Zelenskiy called the alleged crimes 'frankly shameful, absolutely unacceptable'.
Source: Reuters (Nov 7, 2026), via Duke FM
'There have already been dismissals in the Security Service of Ukraine because of this, and there will be other personnel decisions,' Zelenskiy said, adding that he expected a full investigation with results, Reuters reported. He also said he had proposed new legislation requiring all employees of the SBU — an agency that holds sweeping law-enforcement and military powers — to publicly declare their assets. Asset declarations have been a central tool for monitoring corruption in Ukraine, which must eradicate graft to secure European Union membership and keep receiving badly needed financial aid.
Source: Reuters (Nov 7, 2026), via Duke FM
A former general held, and the charges named this week
The presidential intervention follows court action: a Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the arrest pending bail of a former SBU general in connection with the case, and two police officials and another suspect were also ordered held this week, Reuters reported on Saturday. Earlier, on Thursday, November 5, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) said it had served notices of suspicion — the formal step before charges — on a first deputy department head in the SBU, a department head and a deputy section chief in the National Police, and two alleged organisers of the ring; none of the suspects was named in the Reuters report. NABU said it was preparing charges against at least seven other people. The investigation is code-named 'Carthage'.
Source: Reuters (Nov 5, 2026), via MyMix FM
Zelenskiy's chief of staff said on Thursday that the situation required 'timely, strong action', Reuters reported — a signal the presidency was bracing for the scandal rather than dismissing it, days before the president's own address made the same point in much stronger language.
What investigators say the ring did
NABU alleges that top employees of the SBU, the National Police and the Prosecutor General's Office took bribes to protect the criminal ring — and in some cases helped plan kidnappings and other violence for it, Reuters reported on Wednesday, November 4, when the widened probe was unveiled. Investigators said the group's activities included dozens of scam call centres employing 2,700 people that defrauded Ukrainians and foreigners, sales of cannabis-related substances, and the production of counterfeit cigarettes and counterfeit currency. NABU put the organisation at at least 12 people.
Source: Reuters (Nov 4, 2026), via SRN News
The agencies under accusation have answered in different ways. The SBU confirmed that investigators were searching some of its employees' premises and said it was cooperating with the probe. The National Police said it had suspended the officers under investigation, while warning against 'premature conclusions'. The Prosecutor General's Office said it was ready to cooperate but was unaware of the illegal activities alleged by NABU. NABU also said a top SBU official had threatened its investigators with a firearm when they attempted court-sanctioned searches — an allegation the SBU has not publicly answered in the reporting. All of the accusations remain allegations: no court has ruled on guilt.
Source: Reuters (Nov 4, 2026), via SRN News
This is not the first time NABU searches have shaken a major Ukrainian institution this autumn. Read: NABU searches and the resignation at Ukraine's central bank
A probe that began in September — and has already felled a prosecutor general
The Carthage investigation was first unveiled in September, and its earlier phase forced the resignation of former Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko after authorities accused a subordinate of his of helping run the call centres; Kravchenko himself was not charged with a crime, Reuters reported. He has called the investigation politically motivated against the SBU and aimed at destabilising the country — a claim NABU's supporters dispute. The scandal also lands on top of a separate, even larger case: on Wednesday NABU said it had completed its investigation into an alleged money-laundering scheme in Ukraine's energy sector, in which it says more than $111 million and €12 million were laundered — yaani roughly 11.1 crore US dollars and 1.2 crore euros — through kickbacks solicited from contractors of state energy enterprises including the atomic agency Energoatom. That case ensnared a former deputy prime minister and energy minister and forced out Zelenskiy's former chief of staff; all have denied wrongdoing.
Source: Reuters (Nov 4, 2026), via SRN News
What is solid
- Zelenskiy said in his Saturday evening address that dismissals at the SBU have already happened over the case, promised further 'personnel decisions', called the alleged crimes 'frankly shameful, absolutely unacceptable', and proposed a law requiring all SBU employees to declare their assets publicly (Reuters, Nov 7).
- A court on Friday ordered a former SBU general arrested pending bail; two police officials and another suspect were also ordered held this week (Reuters, Nov 7).
- NABU served suspicion notices on a senior SBU official, two senior police officials and two alleged organisers, is preparing cases against at least 7 more people, and code-names the probe 'Carthage' (Reuters, Nov 5).
- The SBU says it is cooperating and confirmed searches of employees' premises; the police suspended the officers under investigation; the Prosecutor General's Office says it was unaware of the alleged activities (Reuters, Nov 4).
What is only claimed
- Every wrongdoing claim in the Carthage case is an allegation by NABU and its sister agency SAPO, not a court finding; the suspects named in suspicion notices have not been convicted, and Reuters did not name them.
- RT reported, citing NABU, that several SBU officers received more than $3 million in cryptocurrency between October 2025 and April 2026 and identified a general named by Ukrainian media; those figures and the identification come from RT's report and were not in Reuters' reporting, so they are carried here as attributed claims only.
- Former Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, who resigned in the probe's September phase without being charged, calls the investigation politically motivated and aimed at destabilising the country (Reuters, Nov 4).
- NABU's claim that a top SBU official threatened its investigators with a firearm during searches is NABU's allegation; no SBU answer to it appears in the reporting.
Why it matters beyond Kyiv
The SBU is not a back-office agency: its military wing carries out long-range attacks on Russia and other wartime operations, even as other units face the corruption and intimidation allegations, Reuters noted. The fight between the independent NABU and the powerful, president-answerable SBU has simmered since last year, when the SBU arrested two anti-corruption detectives in a campaign NABU supporters saw as an attempt to roll back the investigators' powers; since then NABU has charged a former top SBU official with illegal enrichment and another employee with helping military-eligible men evade the draft. For Ukraine's backers, the stakes are concrete: tackling high-level corruption is a condition of EU membership and of continued financial aid while Russia's war — now in its fifth year — continues, with US-led talks on ending it due in Abu Dhabi on November 10-11.
Source: Reuters (Nov 4 and Nov 7, 2026)
Europe's financial backing for Kyiv — and the anti-corruption conditions attached to it — were in the news this week as well. Read: EU disburses funds to Ukraine with Brussels security guarantees
What happens next
Watch for the personnel decisions Zelenskiy promised at the SBU, for his proposed asset-declaration law for every SBU employee, and for the charges NABU says it is preparing against at least seven more people. The deeper question is institutional: whether a security service at the centre of a war can be cleaned up by the presidency it answers to, without breaking the anti-corruption agencies whose independence Ukraine's EU path depends on. The court's handling of the former general's bail, and whether more senior names follow, will show how far Carthage is allowed to go.