Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suspended two top government officials over accusations that their subordinate staffers were committing treason and collaborating with Russia.
Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova and State Secretary Service Head Ivan Bakanov are now subject to an investigation and have temporarily been replaced while the investigation is underway.
Deputy head of the office of the president of Ukraine, Andrii Smyrnov, told Ukrainian television today that there have been concerns over needing more concrete and radical results from the two leaders, and the government needed to clean out the departments of any traitors and collaborators.
It is unclear if the two are permanently removed or suspended. Zelensky seemed to suggest during his nightly address on Sunday that the two were fired, saying that he had made a decision to remove the two heads and that there were officials in both departments suspected of treason.
But Smyrnov said today the pair were suspended in order to ensure that they did not interfere with the investigations into the departments.
Zelensky said that 651 criminal proceedings have been filed over treason and collaboration activities. And more than 60 employees in the prosecutor’s office and the security office are “working against our state,” Zelensky said.
Two temporary replacements were named today. Vasyl Maliuk for the head of the SBU and Oleksli Symonenko for the prosecutor’s office lead.
Senior officials in the SBU in the southern parts of Ukraine have been blamed for the ease with which Russian military forces were able to capture large portions of the south within a week of Moscow’s invasion.
The former head of the main directorate of the security service in Crimea was also detained, being held on suspicion of treason. Zelensky said that he and others were a part of a criminal group that worked in the interest of Russia, and they would be held accountable. Zelensky said that secret information had been given to Russia and that they had other cooperation with Russian special services as well.
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