RTSun, 17 Jul 2022 19:06 UTC
© Facebook/Irina Venediktova/Ukrainian Presidential Press OfficeIrina Venediktova and Ivan Bakanov โข Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova and SBU chief Ivan Bakanov have been fired from their positions effective Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced by presidential decree,
citing a high number of cases of treason among law enforcement and the intelligence service.Some 651 criminal cases relating to high treason and "collaboration activities" had been registered on law enforcement employees, while
more than 60 SBU agents were supposedly "working against our state," Zelensky announced on Sunday, explaining this rationale for firing the senior officials.
Bakanov was removed under Article 47 of the Disciplinary Statute of the Ukrainian military, which refers to
failure in official duties "which caused loss of life or other grave consequences or create a threat of such consequences." His replacement has not yet been named.
Venediktova, who had served as Ukraine's prosecutor general since March 2020, has been replaced by
Oleksiy Symonenko.
Zelensky has dismissed a number of staffers recently,
firing five ambassadors last week, including the ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk. The ambassadors to Hungary, Czech Republic, Norway, and a fifth ambassador with responsibility for India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh were all let go.
Comment: Zelensky is on a purge - to eliminate slackers and create a diversion for blame. However, cooler heads prevail.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in Sunday's dramatic announcement, claimed that a large numbers of staffers at Kiev's successor to the KGB, the SBU โ were working with Russia.
Zelensky claimed the vast "array of crimes," as well as contacts between "employees of law enforcement agencies of Ukraine and Russia," are posing "serious questions" to the heads of the respective bodies, he went on, warning that "every such question will get an appropriate answer."
The
walk back...according to officials:
Contrary to reports on Sunday night, Ukraine's prosecutor general and Security Service (SBU) chief have been suspended, but no decision has been made on whether to fire them, the office of President Volodymyr Zelensky clarified on Monday.
The deputy head of Zelensky's office, Andrey Smirnov, has now said
"there's currently no talk about firing those two officials. We're talking about suspending the Prosecutor General from office, and the head of the SBU being temporarily barred from his duties."
The move was intended to prevent Venediktova and Bakanov from influencing criminal investigations against staff of their agencies, Smirnov explained, according to Interfax-Ukraine. The probes could end with both the prosecutor general and SBU chief being reinstated, he pointed out.
In a later TV appearance, Smirnov reiterated that Zelensky would decide the future of the two officials only after investigations are concluded.
The deputy head of Zelensky's office rejected speculation that Aleksey Simonenko, who has been appointed acting prosecutor general, is set to keep the role permanently.
"Some politicians should engage in less politics during wartime," he advised.
Smirnov also noted that the president would need approval from the Ukrainian parliament to reshuffle officials in such high-profile positions as prosecutor general or security chief.
Ukraine's
parliament had this to say:
Ukraine's parliament has approved a proposal by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to fire Prosecutor-General Iryna Venediktova, two days after he announced he was removing her and another top security official from their posts over dozens of alleged cases of collaboration with Russia by officials at agencies they supervise.
Lawmaker David Arakhamia confirmed on Telegram the July 19 vote in the Verkhovna Rada to support Zelenskiy's move, which has put a spotlight on Kyiv's battle to purge its powerful security agencies of collaborators and Russian agents.
Arakhamia said Venediktova was still part of Zelenskiy's team and that with her experience she "will serve the state in a new place that needs to be strengthened by professional managers and lawyers."
In a related move, the State Bureau of Investigations (DBR) said in a statement on July 19 that the former chief of the SBU's directorate for Crimea, Oleh Kulinich, had been placed in pretrial detention on a charge of high treason. He will remain in custody until at least September 13.
Kulinich, who led the SBU's directorate for Ukraine's Russian-occupied Crimea from October 2020 until March this year, was arrested on July 16 on suspicion of collaboration with Russian secret services. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
Comment: Zelensky is on a purge - to eliminate slackers and create a diversion for blame. However, cooler heads prevail. The walk back...according to officials: Ukraine's parliament had this to say: