Zelensky suspends top officials over staffers' 'collaboration' with Russia

Authored by edition.cnn.com and submitted by theRemRemBooBear
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(CNN) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has suspended two important figures in his government, questioning their leadership qualities and accusing many of their subordinates of treason and collaborating with Russia.

The two high-ranking officials -- Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova and State Security Service (SBU) head Ivan Bakanov, a long-time associate of the President -- are now subject to an investigation and have been temporarily replaced.

"For a long enough time, we have been waiting for more concrete and sufficiently radical results from the leaders of these two departments, to clean these two departments of collaborators and state traitors," the deputy dead of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andrii Smyrnov, told Ukrainian television on Monday.

"However, in the sixth month of the war, we continue to find ... packs of these people, in each of these departments," Smyrnov said.

In his nightly video address on Sunday, Zelensky appeared to suggest that the pair had been fired. "Today I made a decision to remove the Prosecutor General from office and to dismiss the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine," Zelensky said, adding that many officials within both departments were suspected of treason.

anatomically_doggo on July 18th, 2022 at 05:11 UTC »

My read here is they were fired because of how deeply infiltrated their respective agencies were by pro-Russian elements -- Not because they themselves were engaged in pro-Russian activities.

More or less dismissed because 'The Buck Stops Here' than because of any actual collaboration on their part.

progress18 on July 17th, 2022 at 22:50 UTC »

State Security Service (SBU) head Ivan Bakanov was one of the top officials that was fired.

Bakanov was a close friend of President Zelensky. They've known each other since childhood.

Zelensky has been considering firing Bakanov since at least mid-June after numerous security failures that were reported at the time.

Edit:

CNN briefly added this line:

Zelensky said many officials within both departments were suspected of treason.

Zelensky did not name names in his recent address, however, the article from POLITICO back in June did not mince words in its introduction:

You think you know someone, and then Russia invades your country and your childhood friend turned top intelligence official flubs it and some of his senior spies flee their posts, apparently helping the Kremlin’s forces avoid landmines and direct its attack aircraft to blast your cities.

At best, Bakanov was extremely bad at his job. At worst, he'll probably be evaluated as one of those suspected of treason.

DamnItsDirtyDan on July 17th, 2022 at 22:07 UTC »

That’s a lot nicer than executing them for treason. Because in war, that’s treason.