Ukraine: Zelensky dismisses his general prosecutor and his security chief

Iryna Venediktova, Ukraine's Attorney General, pictured in March 2022. © AP/Tom Jennings

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1 min

Political thunderbolt in Ukraine, where on Sunday evening July 17, President Volodymyr Zelensky sacked two of the main figures of the state: first of all Ivan Bakanov, the boss of the SBU, the secret services, and the general prosecutor Iryna Venediktova , both longtime political allies of Zelensky.

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With our correspondent in Kiev,

It was a real political thunderclap that took place on Sunday evening in Kiev, with the publication of two presidential decrees, dismissing Ivan Bakanov and

, respectively number one in the SBU, the secret services, and the national prosecutor's office.

These two decisions come at a time when the Ukrainian State seems to be starting a big clean-up in its intelligence services and in the judiciary, where there are dozens, if not hundreds, of cases of treason and collaboration with the Russian service.

Cascading decisions

Volodymyr Zelensky justified these decisions by stating that 651 criminal proceedings for high treason and intelligence with the enemy had been initiated against employees of these two institutions.

Just this weekend, a senior official of the Crimean department of the SBU was arrested, accused of being a spy for the Russian FSB.

Furthermore, the executive holds the SBU responsible for a sabotage of the defense of southern Ukraine in February and for the fact that dozens of agents defected, in particular in Kherson, and went over to the enemy in occupied territory. 

Thus, in the decree which dismisses Bakanov, the childhood friend of Zelensky, his lifelong associate, the presidency denounces a " 

 ".

In this context of Russian mole hunting, Volodymyr Zelensky is forced to sacrifice two of his closest allies, who accompanied his political rise in 2019.

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• Ukraine

• Volodymyr Zelensky

• Russia