KYIV, July 17 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky on Sunday evening issued decrees dismissing the head of Ukraine’s powerful internal security agency, the SBU, as well as the prosecutor general.
The orders dismissing SBU chief Ivan Bakanov, a childhood friend of Zelensky, and Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova, who had filed charges for Russian war crimes in Ukraine, were published on the president’s official website.
In a message posted via Telegram, Zelensky explains that he dismissed senior officials because of the collaboration with Russia of many members of their agencies.
According to him, 651 cases of treason and collaboration concern prosecutors and law enforcement officials, and about 60 officials from the agencies of Bakanov and Venediktova work against Ukraine, in the territories occupied by Russia.
“Such a range of crimes against the foundations of the national security of the state (…) poses very serious questions to the leaders concerned”, declared the Ukrainian president.
“Each of these questions will receive an appropriate answer,” he added.
Volodimir Zelensky named Oleksy Symonenko new prosecutor general in a decree which was also published on the president’s website. (Reporting by Elaine Monaghan; Editing by Daniel Wallis)