Dismissal of a series of security leaders in Ukraine

Vu Anh• August 16, 2022 06:45

The President of Ukraine has issued a decree dismissing the security chiefs in Kiev, Lviv and Ternopil provinces, but did not give a reason.

The decree dismissing three leaders of the Internal Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) was posted on the website of the Office of President Volodymyr Zelensky on August 15.

Accordingly, the head of the Kiev SBU Serhiy Zayats and his counterpart in Ternopil province Yuriy Boreichuk were dismissed from their positions. The head of the Lviv SBU Artem Bondarenko was dismissed and took over the leadership of the Kiev security agency.

President Zelensky at a meeting in the Ukrainian capital Kiev on August 12. Photo: Reuters.

The decrees did not specify the reasons for the dismissal of a series of SBU leaders.

President Zelensky last month suspended the work of SBU Director Ivan Bakanov, his childhood friend, and Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova on charges of "failing to stop Russian espionage".

In late March, the President of Ukraine also fired the Head of the Internal Security Department of the SBU Naumov Olehovych and Kryvoruchko Oleksandrovych, former Director of the Kherson Provincial Security Service, for "betrayal and violation of the oath of allegiance".

Mr Zelensky said in July that hundreds of treason investigations were underway. The threat posed by a network of spies in the government, churches, intelligence agencies and pro-Russian citizens in the east has plagued Ukraine for years, and the issue has become more prominent in the current conflict.

The Ukrainian president singled out the SBU, the 27,000-strong force considered the largest in Europe. Western allies say the agency operates in too many areas, is prone to corruption and fails to fulfill its role as a spy-hunter.