Ukraine: the secret services dismiss a regional chief accused of being a Russian mole

Ivan Bakanov, head of Ukraine's security service, speaks to the media in kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, July 16, 2019. AP - Efrem Lukatsky

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Could Ukraine be cleaning up its secret services?

On Saturday July 17, the kyiv security services carried out a special operation aimed at arresting one of the regional leaders of the SBU, the Ukrainian secret service.

The man is accused of being a mole of the Russian intelligence services.

Problem: he was named by a relative of Volodymyr Zelensky.

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With our correspondent in Kiev,

The secret agent who was arrested over the weekend is called Oleg Kulinich, and according to authorities in kyiv, he was caught in the act of transferring classified information to Russia.  

Oleg Kulinich was appointed in 2020 deputy director of the Crimea department of the SBU, the Ukrainian intelligence services.

Then, he was dismissed last March by President Volodymyr Zelensky, suspected of being a longtime mole of the Russian FSB within the Ukrainian services.

Besides the transfer of information, Kulinich is suspected of having ordered the dismantling of Ukrainian minefields along the demarcation line with Crimea last winter, which allowed Russian forces at the start of the war to advance very easily in the south of the country, and in particular to seize the region of Kherson.

Only here it is: the man who appointed Kulinich to this post in 2020 is called Ivan Bakanov, a childhood friend of Volodymyr Zelensky, who made him the powerful boss of the secret services.

However, the position of this close friend of President Zelensky now seems to be weakened, because the government would have ordered a cleaning of its secret services, while the SBU could bear culpable responsibility in the loss of the south of the country, in the first days of the war. . 

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