Agricultural employees demand to remove Sytnik from the post of head of NABU because of his pressure on their business

More than 1,500 agricultural workers came to a rally near Verkhovna Rada with demands to dismiss Artem Sytnik, director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), who is accused of pressure on business and creating the threat of disrupting the sowing campaign informs DS citing UNIAN.

Protesting employees of the Ukrlandfarming agrarian holding chant the slogans "Sytnik is a virus that destroys the country" and believe that NABU should not be led by person listed in the registry of corrupt officials.

Today we call upon the president to complete the work that the Verkhovna Rada has already started - the dismissal of the corrupt official Sytnik. Hear us! The company, which over the past three years has paid 8 billion taxes to the budget, and which gives work to 27 thousand villagers, should not be destroyed by the unhealthy ambitions of one person'commented Galina Kovtok, operations director of Ukrlandfarming.

Agricultural employees hope that since MPs are considering the dismissal of a number of ministers and heads of law enforcement agencies, they will also make a decision concerning Sytnyk, decree for the resignation of which in the Parliament has already collected 216 signatures.

"Sytnyk is abusing his official position, and because of his personal claims against our owner, he terrorizes employees, threatens them with dismissal, which is why they are protesting here. NABU without procedural documents, in violation of the law, conducts daily interrogations of Ukrlandfarming employees and tries to extract confidential information about a case in which these people are not involved'said Vasily Marchuk, director of the Avangard enterprise.

"Sowing is soon, and now we must be at work, but we are standing here. All that we seek to be left alone. It's good for us to work here, and we don't want to emigrate to Poland due to the loss of jobs, "said an employee of one of the Ukrlandfarming enterprises in the Poltava region (TOV Agrokray) who was present at the rally.

This is the third meeting since the beginning of this year - earlier Ukrlandfarming employees submitted their demands with 30,000 signatures to the President of Ukraine and members of the Cabinet of Ministers.

NABU opened proceedings against the owner of the Ukrlandfarming agricultural holding Oleg Bakhmatyuk. Without the approval of the court, interrogations of 10 thousand employees of the enterprise has began. The director of NABU Artem Sytnyk is accused of personal revenge against the owner of the agricultural holding due to the fact that the main witness of the prosecution in the trial of Sytnyk, where he was found guilty of corruption, was the adviser of Bakhmatyuk's sister.

Ukrlandfarming is the largest Ukrainian agro-industrial holding. It manages the country's largest bank of fertile black soil - 500 thousand hectares, is engaged in the cultivation of crops and seeds, sugar production, animal husbandry and distribution of agricultural machinery. It includes the Avangard agricultural group, whose companies specialize in the production of eggs (with a design capacity of 1.6 billion eggs per year) and egg products, which are exported to about 40 countries.