Ukraine's president dismisses security chief and prosecutor
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued decisions late Sunday evening to dismiss the head of the Security Service and the Prosecutor General.
The president's official website published decisions to dismiss the head of the Security Service, Ivan Bakanov, who is one of Zelensky's childhood friends, and Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova, who is leading efforts to prosecute the perpetrators of Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
In a separate post on Telegram, Zelensky said he had fired the two senior officials in light of revelations that members of their agencies were cooperating with Russia.
Zelensky added that 651 cases of treason and cooperation have been opened against prosecutors and law enforcement officials, and that more than 60 officials from the agency headed by Bakanov and the agency led by Venediktova are now working against Ukraine in the territories occupied by Russia.
"Such a set of crimes against the state's national security institutions... raise very serious questions towards the leaders involved," he said.
In a separate executive order also posted on the presidency's website, Zelensky appointed Oleksiy Simonenko as the new prosecutor.
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