2 top Ukrainian officials suspended, accused of failing to purge Russian spies from ranks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suspended Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova and SBU security service chief Ivan Bakanov pending further investigation.

Nearly five months after Moscow’s invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suspended the country’s security chief and top prosecutor, saying they failed to purge Russian spies from their organizations.

One of those sidelined in the biggest government overhaul of the war, SBU security service chief Ivan Bakanov, was a childhood friend of Zelenskyy.

Bakanov and Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova embodied Zelenskyy’s policy of putting young political allies in charge of fighting corruption following the former TV comic’s 2019 election.

But in a video statement, the president acknowledged that the pair had failed to eradicate traitors and collaborators from their organizations.

The deputy head of Zelenskyy’s administration said on Monday the pair was suspended pending further investigation.

More than 60 officials from Bakanov’s SBU security agency and the prosecutor’s office were working against Ukraine in Russian-occupied territory, and 651 treason and collaboration cases had been opened against law enforcement officials, Zelenskyy said in his video address.

“Such an array of crimes against the foundations of the national security of the state … poses very serious questions to the relevant leaders,” Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy on Monday appointed Vasyl Maliuk, first deputy head of the SBU since March 2020, as acting chief.