The State Security Committee of Belarus over the past years has recorded active intelligence activities from the Ukrainian embassy in Minsk and the Ukrainian consulate in Brest, reports BELTA with reference to the statement of the special services.
The KGB said that at least half of the employees of the diplomatic mission were staff members of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine.
Deputy head of the KGB Investigation Department Konstantin Bychek called this case “unprecedented even for the diplomatic missions of large states” and noted that this indicates Ukraine’s “aggressive intelligence activities” in Belarus contrary to normal diplomatic relations.
The KGB also stated that the employees of the diplomatic mission carried out undercover intelligence, trying to form a network of informants from among Belarusian citizens, and also personally collected intelligence information, including regarding military facilities in Belarus.
Bychek said that the KGB’s measures to curb illegal actions by Ukrainian diplomats, which were supposed to be a signal to the Ukrainian special services, did not stop “hostile” activities once morest Belarus.
Bycek also noted that, in accordance with Article 31 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, diplomats are immune from criminal prosecution by the host state. He added that in connection with the current situation, the KGB had taken measures to “fetter the enemy’s intelligence activities” and liquidate his residency under diplomatic cover.
