The former chief of the directorate of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in the eastern region of Kharkiv, Roman Dudin, has reportedly been detained on a charge of high treason.
Local media reports on September 11 quoted sources in Ukraine's law enforcement structures as saying that Dudin was detained in an unnamed western region of Ukraine and officially informed that he is suspected of high treason and illegally leaving his service.
A spokeswoman for the State Bureau of Investigations (DBR), Olha Chykanova, confirmed to the Ukrinform news agency that Dudin is currently in custody.
Neither the DBR nor the SBU have confirmed the reports.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy relieved Dudin of his duties after he visited Kharkiv, the region's capital, in late May. Zelenskiy said at the time that Dudin "did not work to defend the city from the first days of the full-scale war" launched by Russia against Ukraine on February 24.
Dudin told RFE/RL that neither Zelenskiy, nor Ivan Bakanov, who then led the SBU, had voiced any complaints about his work or activities related to his heading of the SBU directorate in the Kharkiv region.
