The name of the former deputy is not mentioned in the statement; however, according to data from "Ukrainian Truth" and RBK-Ukraine, it refers to Vadym Novynskyi. In 2023, the National Security Council of Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky blocked his assets in the country simultaneously with nine representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Later, the SBU seized his property worth 3.5 billion hryvnias ($82 million at the current exchange rate).
The 61-year-old Novynskyi is a co-owner of Ukraine's largest mining and metallurgy company "Metinvest" and a partner of the country's wealthiest businessman, Rinat Akhmetov. He is known for his active support of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and in 2020, he was ordained as a deacon of this church.
The GDB stated that the former deputy "followed the instructions" of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, and "was under his hierarchical subordination."
Novynskyi left the country in 2022. He resigned from his mandate as a people's deputy after the Russian troops captured Mariupol. He was elected to the Rada in a single-member district from that city.