(84) ft.com
Zelenskyy fires security chiefs over ‘treasonous’ officials
Head of SBU and chief prosecutor sacked after scores of staff accused of working alongside Russian forces
2 hours ago
Iryna Venediktova has been fired as Ukraine’s chief prosecutor © RAMON VAN FLYMEN/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired the head of Ukraine’s state security service and the chief prosecutor on Sunday over allowing alleged treachery and collaboration by scores of their officials with Russian forces in occupied territories.
Announcing the sackings in his nightly television address, Zelenskyy said more than 60 staff belonging to the two law enforcement agencies had “remained in the occupied territory and are working against our state”.
In total, 651 criminal proceedings had been opened for “treason and collaboration activities”, he added.
“Such an array of crimes against the foundations of the state’s national security, and the links recorded between Ukrainian security forces and Russian special services raise very serious questions about their respective leaders,’’ he said.
Zelenskyy used his sweeping wartime powers to remove Ivan Bakanov as chief of the SBU intelligence and security service and Iryna Venediktova, who as prosecutor-general had been spearheading investigations into war crimes by Russian forces following their full-scale invasion.
Bakanov is a former close ally of Zelenskyy who previously ran his television production company and then his campaign for the presidency in 2019.
After Zelenskyy’s election victory, Bakanov was appointed as security chief charged with cleaning up a sprawling service tainted by corruption and residual infiltration by Russian agents, despite his own lack of experience in government or law enforcement.
But he fell out of favour, with the president in particular, following failings by the service, which has about 30,000 staff and is in itself an important branch of Ukraine’s armed forces. Politico reported last month that Zelenskyy was looking to fire Bakanov, citing officials close to the president and a western official who had advised Kyiv on reform of the SBU.
Ukrainian authorities charged three senior officials from the SBU’s southern Kherson region with treason last month after Russian forces swept through the territory meeting little resistance.
Serhiy Kryvoruchko, head of Kherson’s SBU directorate, is alleged to have ordered his officers to evacuate the city against the president’s orders. Another top SBU officer in the region, Ihor Sadokhin, is alleged to have tipped off Russian forces about the location of mines and air defences.
Before the February invasion, Zelenskyy faced criticism from Ukrainian activists and western officials for not doing enough to clean up Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies.
Under Venediktova, Ukrainian prosecutors appear to have made little headway in clamping down on corruption.
Although the EU granted Ukraine accession candidate status last month, it stipulated that Kyiv would have to show a record of successful prosecutions and convictions in corruption cases for the country to move to the next stage.
The sackings are a further example of Zelenskyy tightening his grip on the levers of power during the war following the imposition of martial law and tight censorship of broadcast media. |
