Operation Carthage: Anti-Corruption Officers Search Home of Kyiv Oblast Police Chief

Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) have carried out searches targeting Andrii Rubel, the head of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Kyiv Oblast, as part of their joint Operation Carthage. Rubel is described as a trusted associate of Oleh Tatarov, the deputy head of the Office of the President.

The searches were reported by the Ukrainian newspaper Dzerkalo Tyzhnia (ZN.UA), citing sources. According to one of those sources, Rubel himself was not detained during the operation.

Investigators are believed to be focused on Rubel's tenure as head of the National Police's Department of Strategic Investigations, a position he held from 12 October 2022 until the end of April 2026.

Rubel's career in law enforcement stretches back years. In 2020 and 2021 he led the Main Directorate of the National Police in Kharkiv Oblast, and before that he worked in the police of Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast, as well as in the Main Directorate for Combating Organised Crime of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Criminal Investigation Department, and the Internal Security and Strategic Investigations Department of the National Police.

In 2019, Rubel competed for the post of head of the Internal Control Department of the State Bureau of Investigation, but failed the legislation knowledge test, answering fewer than half of the questions correctly.

Questions have also been raised about Rubel's finances. His asset declaration states that he bought a 171 square metre apartment in Kyiv in 2018 for UAH 3.9 million, roughly US$85,700. Journalists at Bihus.Info found, however, that the apartment's market value at the time of purchase was significantly higher than the declared figure. Most of the purchase sum, about US$120,000, was reportedly gifted to Rubel shortly before the deal by his father, Mykola Rubel, who also served in law enforcement. Reporters calculated that the elder Rubel's official income over 20 years came to only around US$82,000.

In addition to funding the apartment, Mykola Rubel also bought two Audi cars, which he passed to his son for use. Rubel's mother-in-law was likewise found to be wealthy: journalists traced a Honda CR-V and a Porsche Cayenne to her, along with a house in the village of Vita-Poshtova near Kyiv and 0.43 acres of land in a resort area of the Carpathians. Media outlets also established that neighbouring plots of that land belonged to relatives of Rubel's colleagues from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The searches follow other recent moves in the case. Sources in law enforcement agencies told Ukrainska Pravda that anti-corruption authorities had detained Volodymyr Tsenov, first deputy head of the National Police's Strategic Investigations Department, after new material in the Carthage case was published. On the wiretaps, Tsenov is referred to as "Price".

On the morning of 4 November, NABU also searched the premises of Anton Kravchuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine's Main Department of Internal Security. NABU had earlier reported that during court-mandated searches, one senior SSU official under investigation threatened to use firearms and blocked detectives from entering the search site. Sources identified that official as General Serhii Duka, first deputy head of the SSU's Department for the Protection of National Statehood, who was later detained by NABU officers.

Members of the criminal organisation exposed through Operation Carthage had allegedly planned a violent attack on investigative journalist Denys Bihus in response to a Bihus.Info investigation into U420, a retail chain that sold narcotics.