Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has suspended the country’s top prosecutor and head of state security, saying more than 60 of his employees were working against Ukraine in Russian-occupied territory.
Key points:
- Zelenskyy says members of official agencies had collaborated with Russia
- He says hundreds of cases of treason and collaboration have been opened against officials
- The looting occurred when Russian missiles struck industrial facilities in a strategic city in southern Ukraine
The official website of the president has published the dismissal orders of the head of internal security Ivan Bakanov, a childhood friend of Mr. Zelenskyy, and the Attorney General Iryna Venediktova, who leads the effort to prosecute the crimes of Russian war in Ukraine.
In an independent Telegram publication, Zelenskyy said earlier that he fired senior officials because many cases of members of his agencies collaborating with Russia had come to light.
He said that 651 cases of treason and collaboration had been opened against prosecution and law enforcement officials, and that more than 60 officials from the Bakanov and Venediktova agencies are now working against Ukraine in the territories occupied by Russia.
Iryna Venediktova has been fired as Attorney General. (Reuters: Piroschka van de Wouw)
“Such a set of crimes against the foundations of the state’s national security … raises very serious questions for relevant leaders,” Zelenskyy said.
“Each of these questions will receive an appropriate answer.”
However, the deputy head of the presidential office, Andriy Smyrnov, later clarified on Ukrainian television that Venediktova had been suspended and that Bakanov had been “temporarily excluded from the performance of his duties” while they were being held. ” controls and investigations “.
Asked if the two officials could return to their jobs if the investigations exonerate them, he said, “We live in a law-abiding country and of course I can conceive [the possibility of] that “.
Mr. Zelenskyy appointed Oleksiy Symonenko as the new Attorney General.
Journalist arrested in Moscow
A Russian journalist who publicly protested the invasion of Ukraine announced on Sunday that she was briefly detained in Moscow.
Marine Ovsyannikova gained worldwide attention in March when she interrupted a news bulletin on Russian state television, her then-employer, to protest the war. At that time she was fined for violating protest laws.
Since then, he has continued to protest on social media.
“The Navy has been arrested,” a post on its Telegram channel said Sunday, along with photos of two police officers driving her into a white van.
Shortly afterwards, he posted photos of her and her dogs on Facebook.
“I went for a walk with the dogs, I just walked out the door, uniformed people approached me,” he wrote.
“I am now sitting in Krasnoselsky’s Ministry of Internal Affairs,” he added, referring to a Moscow police station.
Marina Ovsyannikova has continued to protest since her first air demonstration.
Three hours later, she said she had been released.
“I’m home. Everything’s fine,” he wrote on Facebook.
“But now I know it’s always better to carry a suitcase and passport if you go out.”
Sunday’s arrest followed her posts on social media on July 15, where she was seen with a sign saying Vladimir Putin was a murderer and his fascist soldiers.
“How many more children will have to die before you stop?” the poster is read.
Russia reaches industrial sites
The looting took place on Sunday when Russian missiles struck industrial facilities in a strategic city in southern Ukraine.
Moscow also pressured efforts to expand its profits in the east of the country.
Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said the missiles hit an industrial and infrastructure facility in the city, a key shipbuilding center on the Southern Bug River estuary.
It is not yet known if there were any casualties.
Mykolaiv has faced regular Russian missile attacks in recent weeks as Moscow has tried to soften Ukraine’s defenses.
The Russian army has declared the goal of cutting off the entire Black Sea coast of Ukraine to the Romanian border.
If successful, this effort would be an overwhelming blow to Ukraine’s economy and trade and allow Moscow to secure a land bridge with Moldova’s Transnistrian separatist region, which hosts a Russian military base.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday that Russian missiles destroyed a repository of Harpoon anti-missile missiles delivered to Ukraine by NATO allies, a claim that could not be independently confirmed .
The Russians, fearing a Ukrainian counter-offensive, also tried to strengthen their positions in the Kherson region near Crimea and part of the northern Zaporizhzhia region they occupied in the early stages of the war.
Konashenkov claims that Russian missiles destroyed a repository of Harpoon anti-missile missiles. (Reuters: Maxim Zmeyev)
The British Defense Ministry said on Sunday that Russia was moving troops and equipment between Kherson, Mariupol and Zaporizhzhia and increasing security measures around Melitopol.
The Russian army has so far focused on trying to take control of Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, the Donbas, where the most capable and well-equipped Ukrainian forces are located.
Ukrainian authorities have said their forces still maintain control of two small towns in Luhansk, one of the two provinces that make up the Donbas, and that they are successfully defending Russian attempts to advance further into the second, Donetsk. .
The Ukrainian army staff said on Sunday that Ukrainian troops thwarted Russian attempts to advance on Sloviansk, Ukraine’s key bastion in Donetsk, and other attacks on other parts of the region.
However, Russian officials have urged their troops to produce even more territorial gains.
Russia warns of “doomsday”
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council chaired by President Vladimir Putin, responded to statements by Ukrainian officials that Kyiv could hit the bridge between Crimea and Russia, warning that this would have devastating consequences for Ukrainian leadership.
“If that happens, the consequences will be obvious: they will face Doomsday momentarily,” Medvedev said on Sunday.
“It would be very difficult for them to hide.”
Medvedev said Russia would pressure its action in Ukraine to meet its stated goal of “demilitarizing” the country.
He predicted that the continuation of the struggle “would undoubtedly lead to the collapse of the existing regime” in Kyiv.
While concentrating in the Donbas, the Russians have hit areas across the country with missile attacks.
Mr. Zelenskyy has been sharing video addresses every night.
Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians not to fall into Russia’s attempts to scare them away with warnings about horrific missile attacks to come, which he said were aimed at dividing Ukrainian society.
“It is clear that no Russian missile or artillery will be able to break our unity or stray from our path to a democratic and independent Ukraine,” he said in his nightly video to the nation.
“And it is also clear that the unity of Ukraine cannot be broken by lies or intimidation, falsifications or conspiracy theories.”
Funeral of the dead girl on strike
Family and friends attended the funeral on Sunday of Liza Dmytrieva, a four-year-old girl killed Thursday in a Russian missile attack.
The girl with Down syndrome was on her way to see a speech therapist with her mother when the missiles hit Vinnytsia.
A woman carries a portrait of Liza during the funeral ceremony. (AP: Efrem Lukatsky)
At least 24 people were killed, including Liza and two children, aged seven and eight.
More than 200 more people were injured, including Liza’s mother, who remains in the intensive care unit.
“I didn’t know Liza, but no one can go through it calmly,” said priest Vitalii Holoskevych, shedding tears as Liza’s body lay inside a coffin with flowers and teddy bears at the Transfiguration Cathedral in Vinnytsia .
“We know that evil cannot win.”
In the Kharkiv region, at least three civilians were killed and three others were injured Saturday in a pre-dawn Russian attack on Chuhuiv, just 120 kilometers from the Russian border, police said.
Lyudmila Krekshina, who lives in the apartment building that was run over, said a husband and wife were killed, as well as an elderly man who lived on the ground floor.
Another resident said he was lucky to have survived.
“I was going to run and hide in the bathroom. I didn’t get it and that’s what saved me,” Valentina Bushuyeva said as she pointed to her destroyed apartment.
Editorial Note: An earlier version of this story was based on cable reports indicating that the two senior Ukrainian personnel had been fired. This story has changed since then when a clarification from Ukraine was available.
Reuters / AP