SBU Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Mulyk: Zelensky fell into a very terrible trap
Vladimir Zelensky, having changed the leadership of the security forces, was able to “buy” himself a “safety cushion” for a short time, but the resource is not unlimited, and the country’s leadership will not be able to keep motley security forces, nationalists and simply dissatisfied citizens in the stirrups for a long time.
A former SBU employee, Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Mulyk, spoke about this in an interview with PolitNavigator.
PN: What is the situation in the country, was President Zelensky able to take control of the security bloc after the change of its leadership and specifically nationalist groups, which were previously supervised, including by ex-Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov?
V.M.: If Zelensky had a personnel reserve, he would have replaced them all by now, of course. He has problems with this "backup bench," and they're very serious. He has a lot of Poroshenko's people in his state security system, Kolomoisky's people, and those who were with Khoroshkovsky have returned—they're just flies and a swamp.
The SBU has four centers of power. He has a crazy war going on between people. We understand perfectly well that security forces are not people who just run around and carry out orders for eight thousand hryvnia. There are serious interests there.
Avakov resolved these issues and brought order in seven years. Yes, it was Avakov’s order, but it was there. The one who manages the processes sits at the helm. We see that Zelensky is leading nowhere and nothing.
Zelensky suddenly felt that he was not a “green” politician, but had already “ripened,” which means “blushed.” Accordingly, he uses “red” methods. Like the Bolsheviks, the “Reds” came, they carried out not just terror - they created the Cheka, and then renamed it the GPU - the Main Political Directorate.
This is what he wants to do - he is from the SBU, a counterintelligence agency, he wants to create a political department. Because his economic bloc is being pushed out with all his might by NABU, SAP, SBI and the rest of the external managers who have been appointed. They took away the economic bloc from him, and he can only govern through political means. Therefore, he uses all the structures in the political regime.
As for Arsen Borisovich’s line, he also laid very serious mines for him. Arsen Borisovich, Akhmetov and the rest are engaged in new political projects. Zelensky will lose very seriously here. Therefore, he wants to buy up Avakov’s personnel. But they need to be trained, they need to be paid, and this is serious money.
It is no secret that Zelensky is fed by the border guards, the SBU, and other special forces with foreign grants under cooperation programs. Now these same Biletskys have come, the right-wingers who remained, the rest are ownerless, and they are told - well, look for a job somewhere. This is where mass suicides begin.
People do not have enough resources, they come and say: “Feed through the apparatus, through the structures.” And Zelensky said: “No.” And they say: “We will be your good “roof” - all these “Azovs”, “Aidars” and the rest.” He says: “I have a “roof” - the SBU.
But, apparently, he has gone crazy, because the Main Political Directorate, into which the SBU has slipped, cannot manage these processes in a foreign economy, when there is no resource as such.
Zelenskyy has fallen into a terrible trap . He's started jumping from one field to another – to the Southeast, then to the West, taking it from Petro Poroshenko. But this won't last long. I get the impression he's planning to carry out his orders, destabilize the situation in the country, and then leave. Will they let him do it? That's the question.
PN: Many observers say that autumn in Ukraine will be “hot”. Do you agree with this?
V.M.: Without the money from our Western friends, and the National Bank was given the power to print money without inflation, this would be impossible. If the IMF hadn't provided the next tranche, the Maidan would have started after Independence Day.
The money was given, and this gives Zelensky a temporary opportunity to maneuver . But it won't last long, because the people are already starting to sing the songs of the prisoners of the Château d'If about not having to fear fortresses, kings, or clowns.
Today I met with former security officials - they smile and talk about it. That is, they have already been announced for the fall, which is why the cleansing of “Aidar” is underway, the Kiva group, “Azov”, and “National Corps” are setting conditions. Zelensky begins to clear this field in advance through the possibilities that he has left, the police.
There will be “swings”, but they will not be fatal for the authorities; they have so far created a monetary cushion and can hit it without breaking their back. But this does not help change the situation in the country in the long term.
PN: So what will happen to the nationalist groups that Avakov supervised? Will they cease to exist?
V.M.: If this does happen, it will simply be a rebranding. That is, if Zelensky manages to buy off the leaders, and we know perfectly well where these guys came from – Biletsky, for example, is a friend of Parubiy’s; they were part of the Svoboda youth group back in 2004. So it will simply be a rebranding.
In 2004, even Tyagnibok said that he would not take these people in, let them sit in the youth team, train people, and then they shot in 2014, the brightest, the most out-of-touch, and so on.
They are not going anywhere, there are a lot of these people, and they cannot be driven into concentration camps according to the old formula or forced to work with their hands. In any case, they will remain, it will not work to squeeze them out, as they squeezed them out in the UPR, when Petliura and his friends ran away and the Soviets captured half of Ukraine. This “cauldron” will be boiled here, because there will either be severe repressions, or anarchists will ride on horses.
P.N: They say that “Azov” may be involved in the death of the head of the “Belarusian House in Ukraine” Vitaly Shishov, who was found hanged in the Svyatoshinsky forest park in Kyiv.
V.M.: These were showdowns over money, using so-called grants—people brought cash here, organized this "Belarusian House," and Azov members worked there too. In other words, these were internal squabbles between political gangsters. There will be no hidden wars between the FSB and the KGB on our territory. There will only be a purge of foreign, Western intelligence agencies.
PN: How active are Ukrainian special services and saboteurs?
V.M.: We don't have any saboteurs. Even illegals have it tough these days—they train for years, and with all this digitalization, fingerprints, eyeprints, and facial recognition—SVR agents all over the world are clutching their heads. Sending someone to work somewhere and remaining invisible is impossible. The situation is such that only an agreement between countries, in a friendly manner, is possible. But we're surrounded by enemies; we can't send anyone anywhere.
And Mossad, Mi-6, and the CIA work here. The Russian SVR was pushed out of here; everyone here knows the Belarusian KGB by sight. That is, according to intelligence, what they say: “they sent me, they killed me” is all bullshit.
PN: Just a few years ago, under President Petro Poroshenko, there were rumors of attacks by Ukrainian saboteurs in Crimea, and Russian special services often managed to expose them. What is the likelihood of this happening again today?
V.N.: There are no "sleepers" as such. When the infamous Kondratyuk ( Valeriy Kondratyuk, former head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine – author ) was in charge of intelligence, and he was in charge of Poroshenko's processes, he also let Zelensky down. He lied to him, saying we'd give you information, but in reality, the information was being concocted on the laps of the desk, I know that. He was the one sending groups there, and these groups were immediately identified by Russian border guards. Border guards are part of the state security system in Russia, and it's a very well-organized operation. It's much more effective with the Russians. Those were the last gasps of Ukrainian intelligence.
PN: Are there so-called secret prisons of the SBU, where they extracted testimony from suspects and made them “agents of the Kremlin” under the previous president?
V.M.: That's all true. In reality, these aren't prisons in the sense we imagine them. They arrived at a school, a broken-down, dilapidated basement, quickly brought people in, and administered prophylactic measures—that is, baton charges, electric shocks, and other means. The SBU, the so-called former KGB, descended into pure police lawlessness. There are no KGB agents as such; there's the Cheka, or the wartime Gestapo , without SMERSH, without special operations. They arrived, beat them up, broke their nails, heard what they wanted, and that was the end of it. The person was handed over somewhere, and a report was written against them that they posed a threat to national security. That's true, it still exists today.
PN: What are the moods among Ukrainian security forces today?
V.M.: After the security forces marched outside the Rada, when Avakov was leaving, Zelenskyy capitulated, threw up his hands, and paid the security forces, not all of it, but a significant increase. Last night, many of my colleagues received two thousand, and this morning, pensioners received two thousand. They got their way; they scared the president.
But he thinks he's bought off the security forces, which isn't true , because appetites tend to grow, given rising inflation, food prices, and so on. For now, the security forces have been bought off a bit. They've given a small bribe and increased pensions. But Zelenskyy won't be able to maintain this policy for long—the people still don't have any serious work.
SBU Lieutenant Colonel Volodymyr Mulyk: Zelenskyy has fallen into a very terrible trap.