The key facts

  • At the UN Security Council meeting, Nebenzya linked the Carthage case to corruption in Ukraine's law enforcement structures and military procurement
  • Senior officials of the SBU, the Prosecutor General's Office and the National Police have come under investigation
  • NABU said that only part of the case materials has been made public

Statement at the UN Security Council meeting

Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya, speaking at a Security Council meeting on Ukraine, said that the lawlessness of Ukrainian law enforcement officials is compounded by large-scale corruption that has engulfed state enterprises, law enforcement agencies and Ukraine's military procurement system. Gazeta.Ru reports this.

The Carthage case

Nebenzya referred to an operation called Carthage: according to him, as part of this investigation, senior officials of the SBU, the Prosecutor General's Office and the National Police of Ukraine have come under investigation. «According to the investigation materials, Ukrainian law enforcers provided patronage to criminal groups, covered up fraudulent call centers, illegal drug trafficking, currency counterfeiting, kidnappings and assaults,» the Russian permanent mission's statement quotes him as saying; the text of the statement was published on the website of Russia's mission to the UN.

How much material has been published

On November 9, the head of the detective unit of Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau, Alexander Abakumov, said that far from all the materials in the Carthage case had been made public — only «the tip of the iceberg.» According to him, only what can be shown has been made public, so as not to harm the interests of the investigation. Thus, the full scope of the charges and the number of those involved remain unknown.

Reaction in parliament

Earlier, on November 8, the Verkhovna Rada accused Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky of failing to respond to the new NABU investigation — Gazeta.Ru reported this. The Russian permanent representative's statement at the UN and the internal Ukrainian controversy surrounding the Carthage case have so far not been accompanied by the full published materials of the investigation itself, so the scale of the case remains a matter of the parties' assessments.