President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday fired the head of the Ukrainian state security service and the chief prosecutor for authorizing an alleged betrayal and collaboration of dozens of its officials with Russian forces in the occupied territories.
Announcing the layoffs in his nightly television speech, Zelenskyy said more than 60 employees belonging to the two law enforcement agencies had “stayed in the occupied territory and are working against our state.”
In all, 651 criminal proceedings have been opened for “treason and collaboration activities,” he added.
“Such a set of crimes against the foundations of state national security and the links between the Ukrainian security forces and the Russian special services raise very serious questions about their respective leaders,” he said.
Zelenskyy used his extensive wartime powers to remove Ivan Bakanov as head of the SBU’s intelligence and security service and Iryna Venediktova, who as attorney general had led investigations into war crimes by of Russian forces after their large-scale invasion.
Bakanov is a former close ally of Zelenskyy who previously directed his television producer and his 2019 presidential campaign.
After Zelenskyy’s election victory, Bakanov was appointed head of security and in charge of cleaning up an extensive service tainted by corruption and residual infiltration of Russian agents, despite his own lack of experience in government or enforcement. of the law.
But it fell into disfavor, especially with the president, as a result of the failures of the service, which has about 30,000 employees and is an important branch of the Ukrainian armed forces. Politico reported last month that Zelenskyy was seeking to fire Bakanov, citing officials close to the president and a Western official who had advised Kyiv on SBU reform.
Ukrainian authorities accused three senior officials of the Kherson region of Kherson of the SBU of treason last month after Russian forces swept the territory, finding little resistance.
Serhiy Kryvoruchko, head of the Kherson SBU leadership, is supposed to have ordered his officers to evacuate the city against the president’s orders. Another senior SBU official in the region, Ihor Sadokhin, reportedly informed Russian forces about the location of the mines and air defenses.
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Prior to the February invasion, Zelenskyy faced criticism from Ukrainian activists and Western officials for not doing enough to clean up Ukrainian law enforcement agencies.
Under Venediktova, Ukrainian prosecutors appear to have made little progress in cracking down on corruption.
Although the EU granted Ukraine the status of candidate for accession last month, it stipulated that Kyiv should show a record of successful prosecutions and convictions in corruption cases to move to the next stage.
The layoffs were also another example of Zelenskyy tightening control of the levers of power during the war after the imposition of martial law and media censorship.