Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Sunday evening the dismissal of the Prosecutor General and the head of the country’s security services, due to many suspicions of the presence of Several cases of betrayal It was committed by local officials on behalf of the Russians.
“Today I took a decision to relieve the prosecutor (Irina Venediktova) and the head of the security services (Ivan Bakanov),” he said in his daily address to the nation.
650 cases of betrayal
He also revealed that the Ukrainian authorities are currently investigating more than 650 cases of suspected treason committed by local officials, including sixty cases in areas controlled by Russian and pro-Moscow forces.
Zelensky added that “the large number of crimes once morest the foundations of national security, the links established between Ukrainian law enforcement officials and Russian special services” raise very serious questions, stressing that “each of these questions will be answered.”
Butcha atrocities
It is noteworthy that Venediktova in particular led the investigation into alleged atrocities committed at the beginning of the war in the city of Bucha, a suburb northwest of Kyiv, which has become in the eyes of the West a symbol of Russian “war crimes” in Ukraine.
The first wave of dismissals
The first wave of dismissals by Zelensky was in early April, with the dismissal of two senior members of the security service.
He explained at the time that he had dismissed the head of Internal Security Naumov Andrei Olehovich, as well as the head of the agency’s branch in the important Kherson region in the south of the country, Krivorushko Serhiy Oleksandrovich.
traitorous threat
In addition, he stressed that “high-ranking officials and officers who violate the oath of military loyalty to protect the country and its independence will be severely punished, and inevitably deprived of their high military ranks in accordance with Article 48 of the Armed Forces Discipline Charter.”
