Denis Kireev, a participant in the Ukrainian-Russian negotiations, who was killed in Kiev in early March, shortly after the beginning of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, was a full-time employee of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GUR).

This was stated by the head of GUR Kiril Budanov in an interview with the Ukrainian service of Radio Svaboda, confirming the unofficial information that appeared in the media earlier.

Budanov also confirmed that Kireev was killed by the Security Service of Ukraine at the beginning of March last year.

The head of GUR categorically excludes the possibility that Kireev worked for Russia.

Denis Kireev worked in the structures of European and American banks, as well as in the Ukrainian Oschadbank.

In the 2000s, he began working with businessmen who were considered close to the ex-president of Ukraine

According to Budanov, Kireev's information, obtained from Russian contacts, helped protect Kyiv in the first days of the war.

On February 28, 2022, the financier took part in the ceasefire negotiations held in Belarus.

Before the second round of negotiations, Kireev got a call from the reception desk of SBU counterintelligence director

.

After that, the banker came to Kyiv and warned his bodyguards and military intelligence officers who were in his group that he could be arrested.

They drove up to the Hagia Sophia, where SBU officers ran out of minibuses and ordered them to hand over their weapons, and Kireev was taken away in an unknown direction.

An hour and a half later, military intelligence officers found his body on the sidewalk with a bullet in the back of the head.

Initially, it was stated that Denis Kireev was killed during detention on suspicion of espionage for Russia.

But a few days after the murder, he was buried with state honors at the Baika cemetery in his native Kyiv, next to the first minister of foreign affairs, and President

posthumously awarded him a medal for "defense of state sovereignty."

A few months later, Zelensky dismissed the head of the SBU, carried out a series of reshuffles among its generals, and more than 650 criminal cases of treason were opened.

As for the earlier accusations about Kireev's cooperation with Yanukovych's officials, the financier's widow said that her husband explained to her the decision to work with people from Yanukovych's circle by the fact that he cannot change people at that moment and is forced to work with those who are there.

During his career, Kireev cooperated with such reputable banks as Crédit Lyonnais, Citibank and ING.

Late in the evening of February 18, the day before his departure for his annual vacation to the French Alps, Kireev returned home and told his wife that he would not go.

As a result, the wife and son went to France alone, Kireev's wife was unable to change his intentions.

And on February 23, the financier informed Budanov that Putin had planned an attack on Ukraine on the morning of February 24 and even named the main points of the attack, which was later confirmed.