A dismissal at the top made public on Sunday evening: President Zelenksy announced that he had “taken the decision to remove from office the Attorney General” Iryna Venediktova, and the head of the security services (SBU) Ivan Bakanov. Dismissed because of the numerous cases of “treason“in their two respective organizations, the powerful secret services and a judiciary mobilized in the war effort and once morest corruption.
Volodymyr Zelensky even puts forward figures: 60 former employees of the SBU or Justice who put themselves at the service of the Russian occupiers, 651 cases of treason and collaboration once morest officials. For the president,such a range of crimes once morest the foundations of the national security of the state…raises very serious questions for the leaders concerned“. So fired.
And this warning for employees: “Each of these questions will receive an appropriate answer“.
Collusion with the enemy
The dismissal of the head of the secret service is not a complete surprise, since the recent arrest of a former regional head of the SBU in Crimea, Oleh Kulinych, suspected of treason.
The warning was clear:Everyone who, together with him, was part of a criminal group that worked in the interests of the Russian Federation will also be held responsible”. “It is regarding the transfer of secret information to the enemy and other facts of cooperation with Russian special services.”
Ivan Bakanov, a childhood friend who led his presidential campaign, therefore does not escape the blow of the cloth. Neither did Attorney General Iryna Venediktova, a close ally who served as his foreign affairs adviser during his presidential run. The president seems to have lost all faith in them.
Three weeks ago, Politico wrote that he was looking for a replacement for Ivan Bakanov. A person more empowered to lead the services in times of war. “We are very dissatisfied with his work and are trying to get rid of him“, said a senior Ukrainian official on condition of anonymity. “We are not satisfied with his management, because we now need skills in anti-crisis management as we do not think he has..”
Because it is the action of the SBU since the outbreak of the Russian invasion that is in question. Former Zelensky producer Ivan Bakanov, 47, was parachuted into his post there following Volodymyr Zelensky’s victory in 2019. His mission: to reform the successor to the KGB to prove to the West the determination of the new president. From that moment, Bakanov’s skills were criticized by the Ukrainian opposition.
The too rapid fall of Kherson
You should know that the SBU is a huge organization compared to the size of Ukraine, more than 30,000 employees, seven times the size of the British MI5, the equivalent of the American FBI… And its tasks go much further than a simple intelligence service: its mission is also to combat corruption and economic crime.
But his image is badly damaged. Abuse of power, corruption… The grievances are numerous.
Criticisms which also come from Western diplomats and Ukrainian officials in a second time, with the reaction of the SBU in the first hours of the Russian offensive.
And especially on the defense of Kherson in the south of the country: the city fell so easily to the Russians because the SBU did not blow up the bridge Antonovskiy on the Dnieper, that SBU agents left the city before the assault by order of General Serhiy Kryvoruchko et once morest Zelensky’s orders, and above all that a colonel from the anti-terrorist center, Ihor Sadokhin, would have tipped off the Russians on the way to take to avoid the minefields and the Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses… Kherson fell on March 3, a week following the start of the offensive.
Infiltration d’agents russes
Another thorn in the side of the SBU, the suspicion of infiltration by Russian agents and its lack of reliability, already observed even before the start of the Russian offensive.
Another example with this other senior official, Andriy Naumov, a brigadier general who headed the agency’s internal security department, a unit whose responsibilities include preventing corruption within the SBU: he fled abroad a few hours before the Russian invasion on February 24.
The first two were arrested in Ukraine, the third in Serbia and kyiv awaits his extradition. Elsewhere, a regional SBU official in Chernihiva set fire to the organization’s offices, allegedly because he might not put all the documents away.
Ivan Bakanov apparently failed to clean up the SBU. In times of war, this is all the more critical, according to Alex Kokcharov, an analyst at S&P Global in London, who delivers his analysis to Politico : Ukraine lost years when a large-scale Russian attack was feared. “All these scandals around the SBU involved in questionable practices regarding its attempts to conduct business and economic investigations, and the infighting between Ukraine’s various security services have led to insufficient preparation in areas like the south and the east, which were the most expected Russian targets”.
However, the SBU has had successes: it has been able to identify saboteurs and traitors in the Ukrainian population, but that does not weigh once morest its failures, and Ivan Bakanov has undoubtedly been designated as an expiatory victim.
As it concerns Iryna Venediktova, appointed in 2020 as the first woman to the post of prosecutor general, it is her lack of results that is blamed on her. Its services have yet opened 21,000 files of war crimes and aggression since the beginning of the Russian invasion. She will be replaced by her deputy, Oleksiy Symonenko.