Ukraine’s parliament dismisses security chief, prosecutor general | Russia-Ukraine war News

Parliament removes the officials two days after Zelenskyy suspended them for failing to root out Russian collaborators.

Ukraine’s parliament has dismissed the domestic security chief and prosecutor general, two days after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suspended them for failing to root out Russian spies.

Ivan Bakanov was fired from his position at the helm of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) by a comfortable majority, several lawmakers said on the Telegram messaging app on Tuesday.

The head of Zelenskyy’s political faction said Iryna Venediktova had also been voted out as prosecutor general.

In a statement published on Telegram minutes before his dismissal was confirmed, Bakanov said “miscalculations” had been made during his tenure, but that he was proud of his record.

After the vote, governing parliamentary party leader and close Zelenskyy ally David Arakhamia wrote on Telegram that Venediktova “remains in the team”, and implied that she was due for a diplomatic posting.

“Her experience will serve the state in a new place, which needs to be strengthened by professional managers and lawyers,” he wrote.

As part of the reshuffle stemming from alleged collaboration with Russian authorities, Zelenskyy on Tuesday also fired heads of five regional branches of the SBU and one deputy head of the agency.

Zelenskyy said on Sunday that 651 cases had been opened into suspected treason and collaboration by prosecutors and law enforcement officials, and that more than 60 people from Bakanov’s and Venediktova’s agencies were now working against Kyiv in Russian-occupied Ukraine.