Ukrainian lawmakers have voted in favour of dismissing Ivan Bakanov from his position as head of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), Ukrainian MPs Yaroslav Zheleznyak and Oleksii Honcharenko report.
“Yes, we couldn’t carry through everything we had planned. There were some shortcomings, the reasons for which should be analysed separately. At the same time, we need to remember that it is difficult to change a system that had been under the influence of a strong and cunning enemy with unlimited resources for dozens of years, in just a few years’ time,” Bakanov said in a statement.
On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Bakanov and Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova citing numerous cases of high treason and collaborationism among members of Ukraine's law enforcement.
Zelensky also fired SBU deputy chief Volodymyr Horbenko and appointed new regional SBU chiefs in the Kharkiv, Sumy, Poltava, Zakarpattia and Dnipro regions. The president also dismissed the SBU chief for the Zhytomyr region.
