The SBU reform should update and improve the special service, but not destroy it and weaken national security. The SBU Head Ivan Bakanov said this in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine, giving his opinion about the draft law on the SBU prepared by parliamentarians.

“We need to improve the system, update it, not ruin the current one. And we have to do it very carefully. The state security system is not a field for experiments,” Ivan Bakanov said.

According to him, the SBU must be strong and capable of countering modern challenges and threats. And at the same time, together with other representatives of the national security and defense sector,
it must be capable to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the state.

He explained that for several months, a working group based on the Verkhovna Rada committee had been finalizing the draft law on the SBU reform submitted by the president. The constructive recommendations of international partners were taken into account. In particular, strengthening counterintelligence, focusing the pre-trial investigation function exclusively on crimes threatening state security, restricting law enforcement functions of the SBU, creating safeguards, which would make impossible to involve the Service in investigating economic and corruption crimes, proper staff reduction and partial demilitarization etc.

However, in October, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence registered a draft law on the reform of the Security Service of Ukraine, which differs significantly from the version jointly finalized earlier. “It does not leave much scope to protect state security. The draft law needs to be further finalized. And to make it really useful for Ukraine and its security,” Ivan Bakanov stressed.

For example, the new version destroys the mechanism for combating organized crime, even if it is used by foreign intelligence services for intelligence and subversive activities against Ukraine. There is also a withdrawal from the SBU of all functions and powers related to combating sabotage on critical infrastructure and strategic enterprises etc.

“Such a security “reform” has nothing to do with the standards of the leading NATO and EU intelligence services that we all aspire to. It is more like an attempt to weaken the state and the President,” the Head of the SBU said.

He added that not everyone is happy with a strong SBU, but it should be just like that. “For Ukraine, this is one of three vital elements: army, intelligence and special service. When we renounced nuclear weapons, fulfilling the Budapest Memorandum and thus making our invaluable contribution to the global security system, we automatically had to go in the direction of strengthening these three elements. If we do the opposite now, the consequences may be unpredictable,” Ivan Bakanov stressed.