Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gestures while addressing a press conference with Netherland's Prime Minister, following talks in Kyiv on July 11, 2022.
photo: Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP
On a televised address, president Volodymyr Zelensky fired two of his most trust allies and childhood friends, Ukraine’s chief spy and top state prosecutor for their failure to stop their employees to collaborate with Russia.
On Sunday, Zelensky sacked Ukraine’s SBU chief Ivan Bakanov, and Ukrainian prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, citing their failure to root out people in their agencies that worked with Russian special services.
In the televised address Zelensky said, "connections detected between employees of Ukrainian security forces, and special services of Russia pose very serious questions to the relevant leadership."
Since the Russian troops marched into Ukraine in late February 2022, a significant number of spies have been arrested among the ranks of Ukrainian security forces.
Andriy Smirnov, one of Zelensky's top advisers, clarified that the officials have not been fired, as initially suggested, but merely removed pending an investigation. The officials themselves were not charged with spying or treason but merely removed for failing to detect spies in their agencies.
"As of today, 651 criminal proceedings have been registered regarding treason of the prosecutor’s office, pretrial investigation bodies and other law enforcement agencies," Zelensky explained in his address.
Zelensky said that over 60 employees of the prosecutor’s office remain in Ukrainian occupied territory working against Ukraine.
The war in Ukraine has dragged on for over five months and Russia is incrementally occupying more territory.