Ukrainian security service arrests so many key anti-corruption agency workers that it can no longer function
But NABU, which has embarrassed senior government officials with corruption allegations, said the crackdown went beyond state security issues to cover unrelated allegations such as years-old traffic accidents.
Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International said the searches showed that the authorities were exerting 'massive pressure' on Ukraine's corruption fighters.
NABU said at least 70 searches had been conducted by various Ukrainian law enforcement and security agencies in connection with 15 of its employees, and that these had taken place without the approval of a court.
'In the vast majority of cases, the grounds for these actions are the involvement of individuals in road traffic accidents,' the statement said.
Although the risk of Russian infiltration 'remained relevant', this could not be a justification to 'halt the work of the entire institution', NABU said in a statement.
Anti-corruption campaigners have been alarmed since Vitaliy Shabunin, a top anti-corruption activist, was charged with fraud and evading military service.
Mr Shabunin and his allies have cast those charges as politically motivated retribution from president Volodymyr Zelensky's office for exposing corrupt officials. Yesterday, Mr Shabunin condemned the searches of NABU personnel.
Mr Zelensky's office denies that prosecutions in Ukraine are politically motivated.
The SBU said it had arrested a mole working for Russian intelligence inside NABU, who had passed information to his handler at least 60 times. Separately, it detained a senior NABU detective on suspicion of acting as an intermediary in his father's sales of industrial hemp to Russia.
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