Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine Semen Kryvonos and Head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office Oleksandr Klymenko confirmed that anti-corruption bodies did not contact the State Border Guard Service with requests that would involve the detention of Timur Mindich when crossing the state border. The corresponding statements were made on the air of the "UP.Chat" program, UNN reports.
Head of the SAP Oleksandr Klymenko clarified that the investigation still has to determine whether Mindich's departure was part of a planned trip, or whether Mindich left the territory of Ukraine, understanding the possibility of investigative actions being taken against him.
Commenting on the situation, NABU Director Semen Kryvonos said that at the time of Mindich's border crossing, he did not have a procedural status, which, according to him, did not create legal grounds for his detention.
"Not having a procedural status at that time, there are no grounds to detain him at the border," he noted.
Kryvonos confirmed that they did not send the border guards an "information" index, as it made no sense. At the same time, why NABU did not use the "B" index - the preliminary document check regime, which allows a person to be held at the border until the investigative team arrives and procedural documents are served - was not reported.
According to lawyers, this may mean that NABU and SAP had no grounds to announce Mindich's suspicion, so they could not detain him at the border, thereby effectively allowing him to leave, understanding that he would take advantage of this opportunity.
The leadership of NABU and SAP, in turn, explains that they did not use them so that Mindich would not guess about the threat of investigative actions against him.
At the same time, it was difficult not to guess - when for at least four months the media, citing sources, reported on the existence of the so-called "Mindich tapes."
In the context of the possibility of controlling the location, Kryvonos stated that such actions could have been carried out by controlling Mindich's phone. However, this was also not applied.
"Let's be frank. We did not use such methods in this case," emphasized SAP head Klymenko.
Thus, NABU and SAP officials confirmed the absence of not only a request for Mindich's detention, but also the use of other procedural mechanisms that could have prevented his departure from Ukraine.
Subsequently, according to them, the investigation plans to initiate a formal procedure for declaring Mindich wanted and requesting his extradition. However, given his Israeli citizenship, such a procedure has limited prospects, as Israel traditionally does not extradite its own citizens. Therefore, anti-corruption officials will have to wait until Mindich leaves Israel.