Former Ukrainian MP fled Ukraine in vehicle marked as transporting fallen Ukrainian soldiers

Former Kyiv City Council deputy Denys Komarnytskyi, who is implicated in a case of land appropriation in Kyiv, escaped abroad with the help of police officers and former unofficial employees of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU). The suspect was escorted to the border in a vehicle marked with a "200" sign, typically used for transporting fallen Ukrainian soldiers.

Source: investigation by Ukrainska Pravda

Details: Ukrainska Pravda law enforcement sources said that four individuals with SSU identification, two employees of the Department of Strategic Investigations of Zakarpattia Oblast and a local deputy were involved in Komarnytskyi’s escape.

The Security Service stated that the individuals who possessed the relevant identification were no longer affiliated with the SSU at the time of the illegal actions. The law enforcement sources told Ukrainska Pravda that these individuals had been stripped of their status as unofficial SSU employees a week before Komarnytskyi's escape.

Two officers of the National Police's Department of Strategic Investigations involved in smuggling the suspect across the border have been dismissed and served with a notice of suspicion.

One of the key aspects of this "special operation" was that Komarnytskyi was transported to the border "under cover" of a camouflaged vehicle displaying a "200" sign, typically used for transporting fallen Ukrainian soldiers.

Ukrainska Pravda cites excerpts from the interrogation protocol of Komarnytskyi’s associate, Yurii Dovhalenko, who, according to law enforcement sources, admitted during questioning at the SSU a few days ago that he organised Komarnytskyi’s covert departure from Kyiv to the Ukrainian border, evading an extensive police search for the suspect in a large-scale land fraud scheme.

Quote: "Moreover, when we picked up Komarnytskyi and began moving towards the town of Khust [Zakarpattia Oblast], he informed us that a camouflaged vehicle with a '200' sign on the windscreen was also travelling ahead of us towards Khust and had already set off earlier. Throughout our journey, the main task of the Toyota Land Cruiser 200 was to report the presence of checkpoints along the route and, if there were any, to determine whether they were conducting inspections to check for Komarnytskyi in the vehicles, as he was wanted by National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, a fact that had been repeatedly reported in the media. Moving in this formation and direction, the Toyota Land Cruiser 200 drove about 30 kilometres ahead of us, gathering intelligence on the situation. Ahead of it, the aforementioned camouflaged vehicle served as additional security, scouting for the presence of checkpoints or law enforcement officers along the route."

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