Investigators from the Kyiv territorial office of the Ukrainian State Bureau of Investigation have launched a preliminary investigation into the possible loss of devices storing secret information by officials from the presidential office.
“The media published Ukrainian Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Danyliuk’s video address on May 28, 2019, concerning the absence of servers containing secret information at the Ukrainian presidential office’s situational room,” the State Bureau of Investigation said on Facebook on Wednesday.
The department has registered a criminal investigation into signs of a crime covered by Part 2 of Article 29 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code (loss of documents containing state secrets entailing grave consequences).
It was reported earlier that newly-appointed National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Danyliuk had said on the evening of May 28 that monitors, servers containing secret information, and other office equipment were absent from the situational room of the presidential office. The video Danyliuk posted on his Facebook account on Tuesday evening showed an empty room with empty walls and empty server racks.
Former presidential press secretary Svyatoslav Tsegolko said in response to this that all office equipment from the presidential office’s situational room had been leased, the lease was funded by ex-President Petro Poroshenko, and so it was returned to its owner, and no secret information was stored on it.
Tsegolko said the National Security and Defense Council has its own situational center where all servers containing confidential information were in place.
Former National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov said the Council’s main situational center containing the necessary equipment was properly protected and was operating as usual.
