President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky announced the possible dismissal of 28 employees of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). He posted a video message on his Telegram channel.
“There is a personnel audit of the SBU. The issue of dismissal of twenty-eight officials is being decided. Different levels, different directions. But the reasons are similar – unsatisfactory results of the work.
Earlier, on July 18, Zelensky submitted to the Verkhovna Rada a draft resolution on the dismissal of the head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Ivan Bakanov. Ukrainian political scientist Volodymyr Fesenko, in a conversation with The Insider, said that Zelensky had a scenario for removing SBU head Ivan Bakanov from office even before February 24. Bakanov actually dropped out of team work in the first days of the war, Fesenko noted. According to the political scientist, this increased Zelensky's discontent, despite the fact that Bakanov is his longtime friend. In addition, one of Bakanov's deputies, the former head of the internal security department of the Security Service of Ukraine, Andriy Naumov, fled to Serbia in the early days of the war. Several other leaders turned out to be traitors or acted extremely inefficiently.
Zelensky removed from office the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Ivan Bakanov, as well as the country's prosecutor general Irina Venediktova on July 17. Zelensky commented on the dismissal of Bakanov with a report on cases of treason and "collaborative activities of employees of the prosecutor's office, pre-trial investigation bodies, and other law enforcement agencies." He also noted that more than 60 employees of the bodies and the SBU remained in the occupied territory and are working against Ukraine.
