Announcing the layoffs in his nightly televised address, Zelensky said more than 60 employees belonging to the two law enforcement agencies “remained in the occupied territories and are working against our state.” In total, 651 criminal proceedings had been initiated for “treason and collaboration activities”, he added. “Such a series of crimes against the foundations of national security of the state and the ties recorded between the Ukrainian security forces and Russian special services raise very serious questions for their respective leaders,” he said. Zelensky used his sweeping wartime powers to remove Ivan Bakanov as head of the SBU intelligence and security service and Irina Venediktova, who as prosecutor general spearheaded investigations into war crimes by Russian forces after their widespread invasion . Bakanov is a former close ally of Zelensky, who previously ran his television production company and his 2019 presidential campaign. After Zelensky’s election victory, Bakanov was appointed security chief and charged with cleaning up a major agency tainted by corruption and residual infiltration by Russian agents, despite his own lack of experience in government or law enforcement. But it has fallen out of favor, particularly with the president, after failings in the service, which has about 30,000 personnel and is a major branch of Ukraine’s armed forces. Politico reported last month that Zelensky was trying to fire Bakanov, citing officials close to the president and a Western official who had advised Kyiv on SBU reform. Ukrainian authorities charged three senior officials from the SBU’s southern Kherson region with treason last month after Russian forces swept into the area, meeting little resistance. Serhiy Kryvoruchko, head of Kherson’s SBU directorate, reportedly ordered his officers to evacuate the city despite the president’s orders. Another top SBU officer in the area, Ihor Sadokhin, reportedly briefed Russian forces on the location of mines and air defenses.

Before the February invasion, Zelensky faced criticism from Ukrainian activists and Western officials for not doing enough to clean up Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies. Under Venediktova, Ukrainian prosecutors appear to have made little progress in cracking down on corruption. Although the EU granted Ukraine candidate status last month, it stipulated that Kyiv would have to demonstrate a track record of successful prosecutions and convictions in corruption cases to move to the next stage. The dismissals were also a further example of Zelensky tightening his grip on the levers of power during the war after martial law and media censorship were imposed.