President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also fired Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova amid allegations that dozens of employees in her office “worked against our state.” Zelensky said: “Such a series of crimes against the foundations of the state’s national security and the ties recorded between the Ukrainian security forces and Russian special services raise very serious questions for their respective leaders.” Ivan Bakanov, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (known as the SBU), was a longtime friend of Zelensky, according to Ukrainian news agencies. Read more: Four-year-old girl killed in Russian missile strike buried RAF chief says British fighter pilots ready for Russian threat Image: President Zelensky used the ax against one of his top officials The news comes as former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned that any external attack on the Crimean region would trigger a “Day of Judgment”. Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Subsequently, Moscow also supported pro-Russian armed separatists in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine. According to Russia’s TASS news agency, in the event of an attack on Crimea, Mr Medvedev said: “Doomsday will come very fast and hard. It will be very difficult to hide.” Read more: Family returned to bombed home – and find pet cat aliveVideo shows ‘last minutes’ of young girl killed in Russian attack Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player 2:53 Russia ends “operational pause” The US warned of a move that would “endanger humanity” Mr Medvedev’s statement came a day after a Ukrainian official suggested that Crimea, which most of the world still recognizes as part of Ukraine, could be a target for US-made HIMARS missiles recently deployed by Kyiv . Medvedev has previously warned the US of the dangers of trying to punish a nuclear power like Russia for its actions in Ukraine, saying it could “endanger humanity”. ‘The new reality has begun’ – listen to Ukraine’s War Diaries On the front lines on Sunday, Russian missiles continued to hit industrial facilities in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said. Mykolaiv has faced regular attacks 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, such an effort would deal a crushing blow to the Ukrainian economy and trade and allow Moscow to secure a land bridge to Moldova’s separatist region of Transnistria, which is home to a Russian military base.
