Four days before the full-scale Russian military invasion, Viktor Medvedchuk’s wife Oksana Marchenko left Ukraine. A video of this event was published late in the evening on the same day — 18 February 2022. In it, the former Ukrainian TV star is indignant that she is being filmed without permission.
Marchenko passes through passport control accompanied by men who hide their faces behind black medical masks. The guards show the border guards the contents of the trunks of two cars, and then, together with Marchenko, cross the border with Belarus without hindrance.
Journalists from Slidstvo.Info found that one of the guards was a double agent. He was cooperating with the Security Service of Ukraine.
This is reported in the Slidstvo.Info investigation.
‘COLLECTING SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE’
In February 2022, there were no legal obstacles preventing Oksana Marchenko from travelling abroad. Less than a year earlier, she and her husband, Viktor Medvedchuk, had been added to the sanctions lists of the National Security and Defence Council. According to Oleksiy Danilov, who was the secretary of the agency at the time, the reason for imposing economic restrictions was that both Medvedchuk and Marchenko were involved in criminal proceedings by the Security Service of Ukraine concerning the financing of terrorism.
Oksana Marchenko in March 2021. Screenshot from a video by Pershyi Nezaleznyi
However, unlike her husband, the former TV presenter was not charged or placed under preventive measures in 2021 or early 2022. While Viktor Medvedchuk was already under house arrest, Oksana Marchenko was able to move freely, occasionally complaining about blocked bank cards: she said she could not pay for her music service subscriptions.
The Security Service of Ukraine announced its suspicions only in February 2023, almost a year after she left Ukraine. The criminal proceedings against her concern the financing of Russian security forces, which began a decade ago in 2014.
Journalists from Slidstvo.Info asked the SSU why they had announced the charges so late. They said that they had been collecting sufficient evidence until February 2023.
The SSU’s response to Slidstvo.Info’s request
‘Notifying a person of suspicion is regulated by the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine and depends not on their location, but on the moment when sufficient data (evidence) is obtained,’ the response states.
OKSANA AND THE GUARDS
Slidstvo.Info investigated the details of Oksana Marchenko’s escape from Ukraine. Thanks to information from sources in law enforcement agencies, journalists identified everyone who accompanied Medvedchuk’s wife on the evening of 18 February 2022 while crossing the Ukrainian-Belarusian border.
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Marchenko was transported in two cars. The first, a Land Cruiser, left Ukraine at 6:59 p.m. It was driven by Oleg M., an employee of Storm (the company that provided security for Medvedchuk’s family in Ukraine — ed.). The man confirmed this fact to journalists personally during a telephone conversation. The passengers in this car were Oksana Marchenko and Ivan V. According to information obtained from the tax authorities, he is also associated with Storm: he officially received a salary there until at least 2019.
At 7:05 p.m., a second car, a Toyota Forerunner, crossed the border. The driver was Bohdan S., at that time an employee of UDR Group, a company associated with Oksana Marchenko. Along with Bohdan, the car also carried Storm members Vitaliy D. and Valeriy T.
Both cars returned from Belarus after 11 p.m. that same evening. But without Oksana Marchenko and Ivan V. The bodyguard, who can be seen in old videos next to Viktor Medvedchuk, apparently accompanied the former Ukrainian TV star further. According to Oksana Marchenko herself, she was rushing to an interview with Russian singer Nikolai Baskov.
AGENT TUZ
Several events took place during the preparation of this investigation. First, Slidstvo.Info source in law enforcement agencies noted that Medvedchuk’s wife’s escape was a planned operation. Second, one of the people directly involved in Oksana Marchenko’s departure, Vitaliy D., said in correspondence with journalists: “Sorry, you won’t get anything out of me about this person. Quite a lot of time has passed, and there are certain legal restrictions on the disclosure of state secrets”.
Thirdly, Valeriy T., one of the men accompanying Marchenko, according to Slidstvo.Info sources in the tax office, never officially worked at Storm or any companies associated with Medvedchuk’s family. A few months after the incident, in the fourth quarter of 2022, he began receiving a salary from the Security Service of Ukraine. This man’s full name is Valeriy Semenovych Tuz.
Valeriy Tuz. Photo from Slidstvo.Info’s source in law enforcement
This chronology suggests that on 18 February 2022, Valeriy Tuz, together with the Storm people, took Oksana Marchenko to Belarus, returned to Ukraine on the same day, and soon successfully found a job with the Security Service of Ukraine, where he worked for a year and a half.
However, Slidstvo.Info’s source in one of the special services reported that Valeriy Tuz had actually been cooperating with the SSU before his official employment: “He is a former bodyguard of Viktor Medvedchuk. He is the person who helped arrest Medvedchuk when he tried to flee (on 27 February 2022 — ed.). Then he worked for the Security Service for some time. And then they stopped cooperating with him. Or maybe he has some other tasks now, I don’t know. This person was a double agent”.
Slidstvo.Info was unable to confirm this information directly with the SSU: they only provided a brief response stating that “the person you mentioned is not an SSU employee”.
The SSU’s response to Slidstvo.Info’s request
Journalists called Valeriy Tuz, but when he heard the question, he hung up and did not answer further calls.
QUESTIONS WITHOUT ANSWERS
So, the Security Service of Ukraine announced its suspicion of Oksana Marchenko a year after she left the country. And it declared her wanted even later.
Viktor Medvedchuk’s wife crossed the border accompanied by a person referred to as an SSU agent, who officially joined the special service a few months later.
At the time of Marchenko’s departure, the Security Service of Ukraine was headed by Ivan Bakanov, whose actions have repeatedly caused public outrage due to his contacts with members of the now-banned “Opposition Platform — For Life” party. For example, he attended the anniversary celebration of Viktor Medvedchuk’s ally, Hryhoriy Surkis. And he greeted Medvedchuk personally with joy.
Viktor Medvedchuk and Ivan Bakanov. Screenshot from Channel 5 video
Bakanov did not respond to calls and messages from Slidstvo.Info journalists.
The Security Service of Ukraine did not provide a direct answer to the question of whether they had information that Oksana Marchenko was planning to leave Ukraine accompanied by ‘double agent’ Valery Tuz.
The SSU’’s response to Slidstvo.Info’s request
It was not possible to get a comment from Oksana Marchenko: journalists from Slidstvo.Info wrote to all the email addresses and telephone numbers they could find, and also sent questions via a special form on the Palomnytsia website for so-called spiritual donors who want to appear in this Orthodox series. The journalists did not receive any replies.
