On July 16, 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine and the State Bureau of Investigation detained Oleh Kulynych, the former head of the SSU department in Crimea, who is suspected of having passed secret data to the Russian special services. Head of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, head of the Department for Legal and Foreign Affairs of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Eskender Bariiev commented on this situation in an interview with Crimea.Realities.
“I would like the case of Kulynych to give certain messages to other SSU employees, restore confidence in the SSU among the population of Ukraine and, finally, so that this would not be another PR stunt”,- said Bariiev.
Bariiev himself believes in the sincerity of the President of Ukraine, who is currently trying to bring in a qualitative composition of representatives of the SSU. At the same time, he recalls the work of the Ukrainian special services before and during the first months of the occupation of Crimea.
“I remember my last contact in 2014 with one of the employees of the SBU, who often attended various public events organized by Crimean Tatar public organizations and the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people. And when I asked him: “Do you work for the SSU or for the FSB?” I was told: “We have always worked for one state”,- said Bariiev.
According to him, until 2014, the Crimean Tatars were not taken into the ranks of the Security Service of Ukraine. Whether they have appeared there now – he does not know, but claims that no one has applied to the Mejlis for appropriate consultations.