Head of GUR special unit “Artan” Torkotyuk conducted surveillance of Kravchenko in Vienna, Tkach reported

Head of the GUR special unit “Artan” Torkotyuk was in Vienna during the first days former Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko was there.

Austrian security services detained him and questioned him as part of a criminal investigation into espionage, in which Ukrainian intelligence officers and journalists from Ukrainska Pravda are also implicated.

This was reported by Ukrainska Pravda journalist Mykhailo Tkach, who published details from the Austrian criminal case materials.

According to him, in early September a Ukrainian who was under the protection of Austrian security services and whom journalists link to Kravchenko reported Torkotyuk’s appearance at the hotel. After his detention, the head of “Artan” explained that he had come to Vienna for tourism together with security. He was later released.

6 October Torkotyuk sent a letter to the Austrian security services regarding the detention of two of his employees. In the document, among the surnames of GUR servicemen, he also mentioned Ukrainska Pravda camera operator Bondarenko. At that time the outlet’s journalists had not yet been in Vienna.

Austrian law enforcement reviewed CCTV recordings and established that Bondarenko had rented a car with a GUR employee. However, it later turned out that the journalist had been misidentified: he only outwardly resembled one of the intelligence officers. In fact, he was in the car with Tkach.

The two detained GUR employees had military IDs, hidden cameras, and trackers with them. They confirmed they work in intelligence, but during interrogations said they were on leave. According to them, they arrived in Vienna 12 September — two days before Kravchenko. Tkach also noted that one of the intelligence officers had worked at NABU a year earlier.

From the Austrian case materials the journalist concludes that GUR officers may have been surveilling the Ukrainian whom Ukrainska Pravda identifies as Kravchenko. Journalists from the outlet later appeared near the same building. Austrian security services suspected them of cooperating with Ukrainian intelligence and detained them.

Tkach paid particular attention to possible links between Kravchenko and Odesa businessman Volodymyr Galanternyk, who appears in two NABU cases. According to the journalist’s sources, Galanternyk lives in the same building in Vienna where Kravchenko is staying.

Tkach, citing his own sources, claims that Galanternyk could have been one of the non-public organizers of the attack on NABU last summer, and also could have provided the SBU with information about the anti-corruption bureau while preparing an operation related to the case of MP Khrystenko. According to Ukrainska Pravda’s version, it may have been Galanternyk who helped Kravchenko settle near him in Vienna.

The journalist also suggests that the testimony given to Austrian law enforcement against Ukrainska Pravda may have been provided by people from Galanternyk’s circle. In particular, a driver for one of the companies testified that he noticed surveillance of his car. It was this car journalists photographed when it brought Galanternyk. The building’s concierge also gave testimony.

In addition, Tkach voiced a version that the Office of the President may have helped Kravchenko leave Ukraine and get set up in Austria.

According to Ukrainska Pravda’s sources, when crossing the border Ukrainian border guards seized Kravchenko’s passport and for a long time did not allow him to travel to Poland because of a NABU mark in the system. However, after a phone call from Kyiv he was allowed to leave and went to Vienna. Soon after, Tkach says, the former prosecutor general received security protection.

Thus, the materials published by the journalist raise questions about possible GUR surveillance of Kravchenko in Vienna, the role of Galanternyk’s circle, and the circumstances of the former prosecutor general’s departure from Ukraine.