“Zelensky and Yermak Did Not Cancel the Special Operation”: Rada Commission Report on the “Wagner” Case, and Yelena Shulyak Appointed Head of the Servant of the People Party

In addition, the Servant of the People faction wants to expel one of its MPs.

The temporary investigative commission of the Verkhovna Rada on the failed special operation to detain the “Wagner fighters,” headed by Servant of the People MP Maryana Bezuhla, published the final results of its investigation, which states that President Zelensky “did not cancel the operation,” and Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak had no authority to do so.

Meanwhile, MP Yelena Shulyak was appointed head of the Servant of the People party, and the faction wants to expel MP Artem Dmytruk from its parliamentary ranks.

Commission on the “Wagner” Case

Speaking during the briefing on the release of the interim conclusions of the parliamentary commission on the “Wagner” case, Bezuhla stated that Zelensky did not cancel the operation to detain the “Wagner” fighters, and that Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak does not have the relevant authority.

Maryana Bezuhla
Head of the Rada Commission

The commission found no confirmation that the President of Ukraine gave personal orders to the head of the HUR of the Ministry of Defense to postpone the active measure (the special operation — ed.), and all testimony from those questioned confirms this. It was also established that the head of the Presidential Office has no authority to instruct the head of the HUR of the Ministry of Defense to postpone any intelligence measure.

According to Bezuhla, the defense minister may authorize certain actions within the special operation, but only in the part concerning the additional involvement of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and cannot authorize or manage the course of the special operation as a whole.

Speaking about a possible leak of information about the special operation from the Ukrainian side, the head of the commission noted that no confirmation of this had been found.

At the same time, the commission received materials indicating that people in Russia and Belarus could have known about certain measures of the special operation, because one of the 33 mercenaries, in late May 2020, first applied to the FSB of the Russian Federation, and then in early July 2020 to the armed forces of Russia, with a statement that “disclosed in detail the procedure of the contact he had established with the recruiters of the PMC “Mar,” the employment measures and the subsequent actions of the recruiters,” and asked to verify the facts presented for the presence of the elements of the crime of “mercenarism” in the recruiters’ actions.

Among other things, the commission reached the following conclusions:

• The special operation to document individuals who could have been involved with Russian PMCs and taken part in combat in eastern Ukraine lasted from the first half of 2018 to July 2020,
• According to the cover story, the PMC “Mar” was recruiting people to guard oil facilities in Syria and Lebanon. During this time, the HUR of the Ministry of Defense conducted about 2,000 interviews with potential combatants, from which about 500 people of operational interest were selected, and 396 people were identified,
• Initially, the mercenaries were not going to be relocated — only information and documents were to be extracted from them,
• In early July 2020, the HUR of the Ministry of Defense passed information about the special operation to the SBU,
• At the same time, at one of the meetings between the HUR of the Ministry of Defense and the SBU, it was proposed to organize the controlled relocation of 33 people, selected from the 396 identified individuals, from the territory of Russia to a country where these people could be officially detained,
• This special operation began in late June 2020, therefore the Commission concluded that fifth President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko could not have authorized the measures to detain the “Wagner” fighters,
• Foreign special services were not involved in the special operation — all measures were carried out by Ukrainian intelligence and counterintelligence agencies,
• Several plans for detaining the “Wagner” fighters were prepared in Ukraine,
• The commission has data indicating that the special operation was postponed from July 25 to July 30, but who made this decision is unknown.

Bezuhla added that the commission will continue its work.

Party Leadership Change

MP Yelena Shulyak became chair of the Servant of the People party, replacing Oleksandr Korniyenko, who had previously become First Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada.

“Yelena Shulyak has been elected head of the Servant of the People party. The decision was made by the party congress on November 15. Shulyak was the only candidate for this position,” said party spokesperson Yulia Paliychuk.

Expulsion of Dmytruk

MP Artem Dmytruk has been slated for expulsion from the Servant of the People parliamentary faction.

“At the Servant of the People faction meeting, a decision was made to initiate the procedure for expelling Artem Dmytruk from its ranks,” said SotP spokesperson Yulia Paliychuk.

Paliychuk emphasized that Dmytruk will be removed from the Committee on Law Enforcement.

At the same time, Liudmyla Buymister, who recently left the faction, will be removed from the Committee on Economic Development.