In February 2021, Yuriy Butusov published an audio recording in which Russian presidential aide Vladyslav Surkov, and concurrently Poroshenko's party ideologue and Ukrainian presidential aide Viktor Medvedchuk in December 2014, discussed the issue of the exchange of prisoners in Donbas.
Interestingly, Medvedchuk did not have any authority at that time and could not make any decisions, everything he could was agreed by President Poroshenko with his colleague from Russia.
This is reported by the editors of the 360UA NEWS
Nevertheless, Medvedchuk, pulled out of political oblivion by Petro Poroshenko in 2014, becomes the only negotiator with Russia on the issue of prisoners agreed with Putin.
Despite the fact that the exchange process is already underway and other people are engaged in it, including Volodymyr Ruban. In July 2014, the Center for the Release of Prisoners was established in Dnipropetrovsk, whose negotiators facilitated the release of more than 600 prisoners.
According to the relatives of the freed prisoners, such activity of Ruban was not free. They call the figure $7,000.
Nevertheless, Medvedchuk received the mandate of the negotiator on December 23, 2014 from the head of the Anti-Terrorist Center at the SBU Vasyl Hrytsak.
It was Hrytsak who appointed Viktor Medvedchuk and his assistant Yuri Tandit as special representatives of the SBU.
In May 2015, Ruban made a big mistake by declaring that he was dissatisfied with Viktor Medvedchuk's as a representative of Ukraine on humanitarian issues in the tripartite contact group. From that moment it was decided to replace Ruban, but it could not be done so easily.
Only on March 8, 2018, Volodymyr Ruban was detained at the demarcation line in the ATO zone with a large amount of weapons and ammunition. According to the investigation, Ruban was planning to assassinate President Petro Poroshenko, the heads of the security forces and other government officials.
Interestingly, after the arrest of Ruban, the release of Ukrainians from DPR/LPR captivity was not carried out by Poroshenko until the end of his term. Only in December 2019, Zelenskyi's team conducted the first exchange of 14 military personnel, together with civilians (a total of 81 people).
The person who helped carry out the exchange was the same person who helped Ruban sit behind bars and not interfere with doing business with prisoners - SBU General Gennady Kuznetsov.
"Dogman"
Gennady Ivanovich Kuznetsov was nicknamed "dog dog" in the SBU by his colleagues because he is a dog breeder by profession and unfit for any other job, due to his shameful passion for money.
Kuznetsov was expelled from the SBU twice for committing corruption offenses, but each time he was reinstated on "commercial grounds." In particular, on February 24, 2011, Gennady Kuznetsov was convicted of negligent military service in case No. 1-1-173/11.
Kuznetsov is a man from the church of Oleksandr Turchynov. Carrying out the duties of the president, Turchynov returned Kuznetsov to the SBU on March 7, 2014, and despite his criminal record, appointed him head of the Special Operations Center.
At the end of January 2015, Vasyl Hrytsak, then head of the Anti-Terrorist Center (ATC) under the SBU, who had been in charge of the anti-terrorist operation since July 2014, distinguished himself by organizing operations in Ilovaisk and Debaltseve, as well as handing over control of the Donetsk airport to militants. In order to strengthen the ATC at the SBU, he decided to attract proven personnel. Hrytsak appointed his old friend Kuznetsov, who by that time worked in the "Alfa" division, as the chief of staff of the ATC. Formally, the order was signed by the head of the SBU Nalyvaichenko, but the actual decision was made by the first deputy - Hrytsak.
In his new position, Gennady Ivanovych immediately decided to take control of the economic sector so that he could use state funds to refuel his own car and use the company car for the trips of his wife and mother-in-law.
An interesting episode was with the personal driver of the mother-in-law of the ATC chief of staff, Senior Lieutenant Davydenko, who was actually Kuznetsov's domestic servant, at the expense of Ukrainian taxpayers. In the spring of 2018, the police confiscated Davydenko's driver's license for driving a company car while intoxicated. After the official investigation, Davydenko was transferred from drivers to the position of situational coordinator with a work schedule of three days in order to involve in household work at the estate of Gennady Ivanovich, and that was it.
Cases of "Dog Dog"
At the beginning of 2019, the Main Directorate of Internal Security of the SBU conducted two official inspections of Kuznetsov. According to the results of the first official inspection, it was established that during 2016-2018, Kuznetsov provided security measures at Svyatoslav Vakarchuk's concerts under the guise of anti-terrorist training.
In order to protect the concerts, Kuznetsov illegally involved his subordinates, for whom he arranged a business trip to the ATO zone and forged documents, on the basis of which these officers' salaries were doubled for the time of the business trip and a recalculation of years of service was established by a factor of 1 to 3. But in reality, to the ATO zone these officers did not go abroad, they did not perform any combat tasks, instead they served Vakarchuk's concerts, and for this Vakarchuk paid Kuznetsov money "in an envelope".
In the course of the second official investigation, it was established that Kuznetsov and his family left for Europe on a company vehicle during vacation.
About how Kuznetsov embezzled the salaries of his subordinates, forged accounting documents, purchased unmanned Furia complexes for the needs of the ATC at the SBU from his friend in a bottle, or for more than a year, waiting for kickbacks, equipped the Renault car purchased for the ATC at the SBU with means of communication Master", the investigators did not find any information.
As a result, Kuznetsov managed to "deal" with the then head of the SBU, Vasyl Hrytsak, who hid the materials of the official investigation from the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office. As a result, Vakarchuk Kuznetsov was only issued a warning for incomplete official compliance for embezzlement of state budget funds, forgery of documents and security of concerts.
"Exchange" general
On March 25, 2019, the day of the SBU employees' professional holiday, a former officer of this service, lieutenant colonel Vasyl Prozorov, held a press conference in Moscow. He said that since May 2014, he worked at the headquarters of the Anti-Terrorist Center (ATC) under the SBU under the leadership of General Gennady Kuznetsov. During this time, Prozorov passed on information to the Russian special services about the actions of the Ukrainian security forces, especially in the area where the anti-terrorist operation was carried out.
Despite Prozorov's treasonous activities, the head of the SBU, Bakanov, not only did not punish Kuznetsov, but also gave him the right to single-handedly decide on the issue of "prisoner exchange." On February 11, 2020, by his decree, President Zelensky introduced Kuznetsov to the Minsk tripartite contact group, replacing Valeria Lutkovskaya. And on March 24, 2020, Kuznetsov was awarded the Order of Danylo Halytsky, despite his conviction for an official crime.
Kuznetsov's business for prisoners had a specific character: the Ukrainian side allegedly sold places on the exchange lists not only to military personnel, but also to businessmen. The scheme worked like this: when there were Ukrainian servicemen in prisons in the occupied territories, whom the militants were ready to exchange for their own, Kuznetsov decided that the soldiers could still remain in captivity. Instead, businessmen who could pay for their release were included in the exchange lists.
Militants detained businessmen in the occupied territories for a reason - it was done so that they would be forced to pay for inclusion in the exchange lists. The cost of a place on such a list varied from 30 to 80 thousand dollars. As a result of the exchange, which took place on December 29, 2019, every second of those whom Ukraine released from the prisons of the so-called DPR/LPR paid for their return.
Thanks to this scheme of "liberating prisoners", Kuznetsov became significantly richer. He built an estate on the banks of the Dnieper in Osokorki, where he built a house with an area of 550 square meters. He also owns an elite Land Rover, a boat and other assets that are not reflected in the official declaration.
Who was "released" by the exchange general?
During the exchange of prisoners organized by SBU Major General Gennady Kuznetsov in December 2019, a significant part of the released persons consisted of businessmen who paid for their inclusion in the list formed under the leadership of Kuznetsov. In addition, among those who were released, there were criminals, in particular Yevhenii Brazhnikov. While in the "Isolation" prison in the territory not controlled by Ukraine, Brazhnikov abused other prisoners, took food and clothing from them, and in particular tortured journalist Stanislav Aseev, who was also released on December 29, 2019.
Such cases were not isolated. In 2017, Kuznetsov contributed to the release of former militant Oleksiy Kuskov, who, while in prison in the occupied territory, tortured prisoners together with Brazhnikov, inflicting serious injuries, including Aseev. In exchange for such persons, the Ukrainian side handed over to the so-called "DPR" Galina Chernikova, who participated in hostilities against Ukraine in the occupied Donbas.
The lists for exchange also included former employees of the Berkut special unit, who were tried for their participation in shootings during protests in February 2014, as well as Volodymyr Tsemakh, who was considered an important witness in the case of the downing of Malaysian airliner flight MH17 in 2014. Tsemakh was taken out of the occupied territory as a result of a special operation during which the Ukrainian intelligence officer Oleksandr Kolodyazhny was killed.
In addition to businessmen, even part-time employees of the SBU, who were detained by the Russian special services, were included in the exchange lists. For example, 32 thousand dollars was paid for the release of Denys Sekatsky. In April 2020, during the next exchange, Kuznetsov included Oleksandr Sadivskyi, who was convicted of murdering a pregnant woman during a robbery attack, in the list of persons that Ukraine was supposed to take away from ORDLO. In addition, Sadivskyi, while imprisoned in the occupied territory, organized a criminal group that carried out fraudulent operations on the territory of Ukraine by sending messages about the blocking of bank cards and fake winnings.
After the exchange, Sadivskyi was detained by the Shevchenkiv District Court of Kyiv. Together with him, on April 16, 2020, Volodymyr Karas, a former police officer in the occupied territories, was also released. Of the 20 people released during the so-called "Easter exchange", only three were defenders of the territorial integrity of Ukraine: two servicemen, Mykola Grynenko and Viktor Shaydov, as well as student Serhiy Rusinov, convicted by the occupation authorities for comments on social networks. The remaining 17 people were either accomplices of militants or participants in the so-called "commercial exchange".
At the same time, the Ukrainian side handed over to the "DPR" persons who were tried for serious crimes against Ukraine, in particular Dmytro Yakob, accused of an attempt on the people's deputy Anton Herashchenko, and Leonid Kharitonov, suspected of an attempt to sabotage the military airfield in Cherkassy.
On the other hand, the affairs of servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who are captured by militants, are less actively dealt with. For example, Zasypko, a freelance employee of the SBU, who was wounded and tortured, remains in prison, but Kuznetsov claims that "the fact of Zasypko's illegal detention has not been confirmed."
What do we have in the end?
On April 12, 2024, Vasyl Prozorov's car was blown up in Moscow. Although he survived, this Cosmonautics Day will forever remain in his memory. Lieutenant Colonel Prozorov, who in 2015 served in the headquarters of the Anti-Terrorist Center under the SBU, visited Moscow without hindrance for meetings with his supervisor. After his return to Kyiv, no questions arose from General Gennady Kuznetsov, then Chief of Staff. Similarly, counter-intelligence also had no complaints against Prozorov or his commander.
At the suggestion of Lieutenant Bakanov (actually, at the recommendation of Brigadier General Naumov), Kuznetsov was awarded the Order of Danylo Halytskyi by President Zelenskyi. The reason for such attachment of Bakanov (or Naumov) to Kuznetsov became clear after the arrest of Oleg Kulinich, head of the SBU in the ARC Crimea, who also turned out to be a Russian agent. In telephone conversations with Volodymyr Sivkovich, who acquired the position for Kulinich through Bakanov, Kulinich called Kuznetsov "Hunter" because of his love for hunting dogs. These conversations also discussed the replacement of Ruslan Baranetskyi, head of the ATC at the SBU, with Gennady Kuznetsov, which was agreed with Moscow.
Despite the fact that Kulinich is on trial for treason and Naumov is trying to avoid extradition from Serbia, Kuznetsov, also known as "Okhotnik" or "Doghound", quietly resigned from the SBU. He currently lives in his estate in Osokorki, which he bought with money earned from prisoner exchange schemes. The Security Service of Ukraine does not bother Kuznetsov, and there are no attempts on his life.
