Following recent anonymous briefings against Zelensky’s childhood friend Ivan Bakanov – who has been in charge of the 30,000-strong state security service, SBU, since 2019 – over claims he failed to tackle Russian infiltration, he was abruptly suspended on Sunday along with the prosecutor. general, Iryna Venediktova, who headed the war crimes investigations. While the reason cited was the allegation of broad Russian cooperation in the two departments, it also appears to reflect a struggle for influence around the president among key players. Zelensky, who was widely known on the world stage as a wartime leader, had been dogged domestically before the invasion by accusations that he had appointed inexperienced foreigners, including friends, to jobs in which they lacked depth. The latest move comes just a week after Zelenskiy fired ambassadors to five countries, including Germany, and several other envoys, including to Hungary, Norway, the Czech Republic and India. And last month there was a public spat with the chief of his armed forces. Bakanov in particular was considered close to Zelensky, growing up in the same city of Kryvyi Rih. He worked for Zelenskiy’s production company Studio Kvartal-95 and managed the former actor’s campaign site during his presidential bid. At the time of his appointment, he was accused of holding a top position in a private company registered in Spain in apparent violation of Ukraine’s anti-corruption laws. While observers suggest one motive is to demonstrate to the Ukrainian public that Zelensky will not tolerate underperformance, the moves also come amid hostile coverage against key figures in recent weeks. Initial reports said the pair had been fired, but Andriy Smyrnov, Zelenskiy’s deputy chief of staff, clarified that they had been suspended. “Everyone has been waiting a long time for more concrete and, perhaps, radical results from the heads of these two bodies to clear them of collaborators and traitors,” he said. “However, in the sixth month of the war, we continue to find dozens of such people in each of these institutions.” A Politico article three weeks ago quoted unnamed senior officials as saying that Zelensky planned to replace Bakanov due to incompetence, largely after allegations that his agency was ill-prepared for a Russian invasion, particularly its failure to destroy a key Kherson bridge in the south. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST The article suggested that Zelensky and Bakanov rarely spoke, that the president worried about the prospect of firing someone from his inner circle, and that the day-to-day activities of the SBU were managed by the presidential office. “We are very unhappy with his work and are working to get rid of him,” an official close to Zelensky told the website. “We’re not happy with his manager, you know, [skills] because now you need… crisis management skills that we don’t think he has.” On June 27, when asked about Bakanov’s position at a press briefing, Zelensky appeared to say that his job was secure. “As for the head of Ukraine’s security service, if I wanted to fire him, I would have already fired him,” he said. Sunday’s presidential order announcing the suspensions of the two officials cited hundreds of criminal proceedings for alleged treason and cooperation by individuals within their departments and other law enforcement agencies. “Specifically, more than 60 employees of the prosecutor’s office and the SBU [state security service] they remained in the occupied territories and are working against our state,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address to the nation. “Such a series of crimes against the foundations of the national security of the state and the links recorded between the Ukrainian security forces and the Russian special services, raise very serious questions for their respective leaders.” The announcement came as the former head of the SBU in Crimea, Oleh Kulinich, who was fired in March, was arrested on suspicion of high treason. #Ukraine has finally arrested top mole, long-time Russian FSB agent Oleg Kulinich (linked to US-sanctioned Andrey Derkach). As of 2020, Kulinich has returned from top Ukr spy Ivan Bakanov to top ranks in @ServiceSsu and in charge of occupied #Crimea. Topic⬇️ pic.twitter.com/mZxtrNaDpH — Viktor Kovalenko (@MrKovalenko) July 16, 2022 The suspension of Venediktova, who led war crimes investigations in Ukraine and was another former employee in Zelensky’s campaign headquarters, was seen as more surprising. Admired by Western officials and the media, she has been a more controversial figure in Ukraine over her department’s failures on a number of high-profile anti-corruption cases. On Sunday, Russian missiles hit industrial facilities in Mykolaiv, a key shipbuilding center in southern Ukraine. Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said the missiles hit an industrial facility and an infrastructure facility. Mykolaiv has been the target of regular missile strikes in recent weeks as the Russians have sought to weaken Ukrainian defenses. The Russian military has stated its goal to cut off the entire Black Sea coast of Ukraine all the way to the Romanian border. If successful, the effort would deal a crushing blow to the Ukrainian economy and trade and allow Moscow to secure a land bridge to Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria, which is home to a Russian military base. Early in the campaign, Ukrainian forces repelled Russian attempts to capture Mykolaiv, which lies near the Black Sea coast between Russian-held Crimea and the main Ukrainian port of Odessa. Since then, Russian troops have stopped their attempts to advance on the city, but have continued to hit Mykolayiv and Odessa with regular rocket attacks. A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, said on Sunday that Russian missiles destroyed a depot of Harpoon anti-ship missiles delivered to Ukraine by NATO allies, a claim that could not be independently confirmed. The Russians, fearing a Ukrainian counterattack, also tried to strengthen their positions in the Kherson region near Crimea and in part of the northern Zaporizhzhia region that they captured in the first stage of the war.
