Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday sacked the head of the nation’s domestic security service and state prosecutor, citing hundreds of cases of alleged treason and collaboration with Russia, as Moscow appeared set to step up military operations.
Zelenskiy said more than 60 officials from the SBU security service and prosecutor’s office were working against Ukraine in Russian-occupied territories, and 651 treason and collaboration cases had been opened against law enforcement officials.
The sackings on Sunday of Ivan Bakanov, head of the security service, and Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, who led efforts to prosecute Russian war crimes, and the sheer number of treason cases reveals the huge challenge of Russian infiltration as Kyiv battles Moscow in what it says is a fight for survival.
Photo: Reuters
“Such an array of crimes against the foundations of the national security of the state ... pose very serious questions to the relevant leaders,” Zelenskiy said. “Each of these questions will receive a proper answer.”
In his nightly speech to the nation, Zelenskiy noted the arrest on suspicion of treason of the SBU’s former head overseeing the region of Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014 that Kyiv and the West still view as Ukrainian land.
Zelenskiy said he had fired the top security official at the start of the invasion, a decision he said had now been shown to be justified.
“Sufficient evidence has been collected to report this person on suspicion of treason. All his criminal activities are documented,” he said.
After failing to capture the capital, Kyiv, early in the invasion, Russian forces using a campaign of devastating bombing now control large swaths of Ukraine’s south and east, where pro-Russian separatists already control territory.
Zelenskiy said that Russia had used more than 3,000 cruise missiles to date, and it was “impossible to count” the number of artillery and other strikes so far.
Western deliveries of long-range arms are beginning to help Ukraine on the battlefield, with Kyiv citing a string of successful strikes carried out on 30 Russian logistics and ammunition hubs, using several multiple launch rocket systems supplied by the West.
The strikes are causing havoc with Russian supply lines and have significantly reduced Russia’s offensive capability, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said.
Ukraine’s southern Operational Command on Sunday reported that in the Kherson region it had destroyed two Russian Pantsir missile systems, three strategic communication systems, one radar station, two ammunition depots, and 11 armored and military vehicles.
The Russian military are also using radio-electronic warfare to suppress satellite communication channels, the Ukrainian General Staff said in a statement early yesterday.
Russia has ordered military units to intensify operations to prevent Ukrainian strikes on areas held by Russia, according to Ukraine, which at the weekend reported shelling along the front line in what it said was preparation for a fresh assault.
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