Ukraine Communists deny financing terrorism, accuse Security Service chief of lying

On Aug. 25, the head of the Security Service, Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, said “the leaders of Communist chapters who have been arrested in Donbas under court rulings and on the basis of findings by the SBU and other law enforcement agencies have given clear evidence during interrogations” about the financing of terrorists.

“The Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine hereby states that this is a brazen and deliberate lie, something that is not only an administrative but also a criminal offense. Our fellow comrades who have been illegally detained have never made any confession statements as neither they nor the leadership of the Communist Party of Ukraine have been involved in financing or supporting terrorism,” the party leadership said in a statement.

“Moreover, the Presidium … hereby states that the detention of those party members involved flagrant violations of Ukrainian laws and possessed all the characteristics of the crimes of abduction and illegal confinement,” it said.

“The methods of the SBU and the principles of its head, Mr. Nalyvaichenko,” mean that SBU “is becoming a political police agency,” the statement said.

Ukraine’s Communists “stand for the territorial integrity of Ukraine and for peace and order within it,” the document said.