Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has fired the head of the State Security Service and the Prosecutor General of Ukraineciting hundreds of cases of alleged treason and collaboration with Russia, as Moscow appeared ready to step up military operations.
Zelensky said more than 60 officials from the SBU security service and the prosecutor’s office are working against Ukraine in Russian-occupied territories, and 651 cases of treason and collaboration have been opened against law enforcement officials.
The firings on Sunday of Ivan Bakanov, the head of the security service, and Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova, who led efforts to prosecute Russian war crimes, and the huge number of treason cases, reveal the major challenge of Russian infiltration as Kyiv is fighting Moscow in what it says is a fight for survival, Reuters reports.
“Such a series of crimes against the foundations of the state’s national security … raises very serious questions for the relevant leaders,” said Zelensky. “Every single one of those questions will get a right answer.”
In his nightly address to the nation, Zelensky noted the recent arrest on suspicion of treason of the former head of the SBU who oversaw the Crimea region, the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014 that Kyiv and the West still consider as Ukrainian land.
Zelensky said he fired the top security official at the beginning of the invasion, a decision he said has now been proven justified.
“Sufficient evidence has been gathered to report this person as a suspect of treason. All his criminal activities are documented,” he said.
It is noted that Zelensky, with executive orders he issued late last night, fired the head of the State Security Service and the country’s Attorney General. Ivan Bakanov, until recently the head of Ukraine’s internal security service, is a childhood friend of Zelensky. Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova had taken over the effort to prosecute Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
The decision was initially posted on the presidency’s website, without any explanation of the reasons that led to it.
Source: News Beast
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