The SBU is collecting money for Duka's bail: employees are being forced to transfer up to 150 thousand hryvnias — sources ZN.UA

In the Security Service of Ukraine, they organized a collection of money for the bail of SBU General Serhii Duka, who is currently in custody. The High Anti-Corruption Court set his bail at 65 million hryvnias. According to ZN.UA sources in law enforcement, employees from various SBU subunits, including in the regions, are being involved in the collection.

According to sources, operatives, employees of the Department for the Protection of National Statehood and units of the economic direction are required to transfer 50 thousand hryvnias each. Section heads, their deputies, and heads of departments must contribute 150 thousand hryvnias each. In the regions, SBU employees also receive instructions to transfer their own money directly to the VACs account, after which they take screenshots of payment documents and send them to their supervisor. Department heads prepare lists of those who transferred funds and report to leadership in Kyiv. Employees are promised to get the money back in cash, but when exactly this will happen and how the return will occur is not being disclosed.

Moreover, inside the SBU there is discussion of a planned meeting on Wednesday, 11 November, of the heads of four departments with the head of the fourth directorate of the SBU, Taras Tymoshchuk. According to employees, during the meeting cash might be issued for further bail contributions through representatives of commercial structures. Sources also report that 6 November, SBU employees received an advance four days earlier than usual. Interviewees connect this with the money collection for Duka’s bail.

ZN.UA Comment

Many SBU officers who fight on the frontlines are shocked by the amounts mentioned in the contract of the former head of the SBU department Artem Shil. And now they are being forced to chip in their own money for the bail of the "prince of schemes."

4 November, investigators from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and prosecutors from the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office exposed a criminal organization whose participants paid money to high-ranking SBU and National Police officials for the operation of fraudulent call centers, counterfeiting euros, and drug trafficking. On the same day, Duka, who appears on new NABU tapes under the alias "Akim," was detained. During searches, armed officers from the Alpha unit were called to the home of the SBU general, and Duka himself smashed phones and a hard drive with a hammer. He also threatened to use firearms against the investigators.

Earlier, Duka and the head of the Main Directorate of Internal Security, Anton Kravchuk, oversaw the forceful direction of operations against investigators of anti-corruption bodies and investigative journalists from Bihus.info. In September 2025, the editor of the internal politics section at ZN.UA, Inna Vedernikova, wrote an article titled “Secret Services from a Lamp: Can You Damn the Genie Released by Zelensky?” Kravchuk and Duka, after Vasyl Malyuk left the head of the SBU, adjusted to the new head of the agency, Oleksandr Poklad.

The President of Ukraine in February 2026 named Duka a new rank — major general (three years ago he received the rank of brigadier general, and in March this year the president conferred this rank on Kravchuk as well). The Center for Countering Corruption stated that the new ranks for Duka and Kravchuk are their reward for attacks on SAP and NABU last summer. They added that the president "bears full responsibility for the actions of the head of the rear SBU."