NABU「カルタゴ」事件、出典不明の「メキシカン」 interview がYouTubeで公開され急速に拡散

なぜ重要か

The interview offered first-person confirmation of allegations central to the NABU's "Carthage" operation, yet no documents substantiating the statements were shown and the interviewee's identity could not be verified. Its rapid, coordinated circulation may shape public perceptions of the criminal case and Ukraine's broader corruption situation before investigators have publicly corroborated the claims. NABU's lack of comment leaves questions about authenticity, coordination and corroboration unanswered.

何が起きたか

On 4 November, NABU announced that its "Carthage" operation had exposed a criminal organization involving serving officials of the SBU, the Office of the Prosecutor General and the National Police, as well as criminal elements. According to investigators, the group engaged in illegal business rackets, planned attacks and abductions. NABU identified Andriy Osipov, nicknamed "Criminal", as the group's founder and leader. The alleged "Mexican" was described as Yegor Burkin, a Russian citizen and founder of the transnational "Khimprom" drug cartel who went to Ukraine after being placed on a wanted list in 2016.

Several journalists were approached in advance by unknown people claiming to represent the NABU investigative organization "Carthage", who offered an interview with the alleged "Mexican". Journalist Danylo Mokryk received the proposal on 9 November, five days after the investigation was published. Denys Kazanskyi declined, saying he roughly understood the purpose and how it would be used, and was not fully certain the writing came from him. A blogger, Vasyl Tymoshenko, later published the interview.

The YouTube video ran for nearly two and a half hours. The interviewee, whose face was not shown and who spoke Russian and declined to appear on video, acknowledged that his voice was on the NABU recordings, said he had no connection with the president, and described contact with Russian intelligence services as an attempted recruitment. He stated he was ready to cooperate with NABU and SAP. He said he would not deny anything in the NABU recordings and wanted to confirm it all to show how deeply Ukraine was mired in corruption. No documents substantiating his statements were shown, and Interfax-Ukraine said it was impossible to verify his identity.

Monitoring recorded 1,498 publications about the interview from 957 sources during the first 21 hours, through 19:20 on 14 November — 55% of all 2,737 publications about "Khimprom" and the "Carthage" case in the monitored period. Facebook produced 1,024 of those publications, including 781 reposts. The first TikTok clip appeared 16 minutes after the premiere, which resembles a prepared launch. By 22:05 on 14 November the video had 739,000 views; the ten largest posts outside Facebook had more than 1.6 million combined views. NABU did not comment on the interview record.

ウクライナメディアの見方

Ukrainian coverage centers on the clandestine outreach to journalists, Denys Kazanskyi's rejection of the offer, the absence of documents substantiating the statements, NABU's lack of comment and the inability to verify the interviewee's identity. Coverage also emphasizes the interview's exceptional reach: 1,498 publications from 957 sources in the first 21 hours, with short social-media clips appearing almost immediately after the premiere.

背景

On 4 November, NABU announced that its "Carthage" operation had exposed a criminal organization involving senior law-enforcement officials, alleged criminal rackets, planned attacks and abductions. The alleged "Mexican" was described as a Russian citizen and founder of the transnational "Khimprom" drug cartel who went to Ukraine after being placed on a wanted list in 2016. According to NABU, Andriy Osipov, nicknamed "Criminal", founded and led the group and maintained relationships with law-enforcement contacts in Zhytomyr region. NABU also said that among Osipov's associates were SBU officials who in summer 2025 were involved in an attempt to strip NABU and SAP of their independence.