President underlined the effectiveness of the work of the Security Service: No matter how hard our enemies slander the Service, they will not ruin trust in it

President Petro Poroshenko emphasizes that the successful work of the Security Service of Ukraine contributed to the advancement of our state on its way to the European Union and NATO.

“All that we have done is our consistent steps on our path to NATO and the EU. And one of the factors that allowed us to go so far is an effective activity and hard work of the Security Service of Ukraine. I am here today to thank all the employees of the Service for heroism, for selfless work, for fulfilling the duty in the most difficult conditions,” the Head of State said during the solemn events on occasion of the 27th anniversary of the Security Service.

“We managed to stop the enemy on the front. Together with the Armed Forces, the border guards, the National Guard, the National Police, we managed to return two-thirds of the occupied Donbas and take control of the security situation inside the country,” Petro Poroshenko added.

Among the achievements of the Security Service, the President mentioned the prevention of nearly 300 terrorist attacks aimed to sow panic and despair in society; disclosure and conviction of 341 people for treason and espionage; extraction from the illegal circulation of more than 8 thousand weapons, more than 960 thousand explosive devices, ammunition, 10 tons of explosives. The Service also detected and prevented waves of cyberattacks of the Russian special services on state electronic resources and systems of critical infrastructure objects.

“In addition, over the past year, the Service terminated the activity of several intelligence networks created by Russian military intelligence. More than 150 members of the terrorist organizations DNR/LNR were disclosed, more than a third of them were arrested,” the Head of State said.

Petro Poroshenko added: “Now I can already say that due to the brilliant counterintelligence operations in August and September last year, two so-called ministers of DNR were brought to the territory controlled by Ukraine, as well as the former commander of the tank division of the militants. At the moment, they cooperate with the investigation, testify to Russia’s involvement in the occupation of Donbas, plundering of state property, destruction of the infrastructure and economic complex of the region and other crimes against the national and public security of Ukraine. I especially want to note the military counterintelligence operation carried out recently, which revealed the activities of the intelligence network of the Armed Forces of Russia under the code name “Sapphire”.

In addition, the Security Service also blocked the attempts of destructive forces to prevent the unification process in the Ukrainian Orthodoxy and artificially inspire interreligious and interconfessional hostility within the state.

Also, according to the Security Service, over one and a half thousand people were convicted of corruption crimes. “I sincerely thank the Security Service for these and other results, which are worth a tremendous amount of work. No matter how hard our enemies slander the Service, they will not ruin trust in it,” the Head of State emphasized.