Ukrainian president sacks head of state security service, prosecutor general

By Handan Kazanci

ISTANBUL (AA) - Ukraine's President Zelenskyy on Sunday sacked the head of the country’s state security service and prosecutor general.

“Today I made a decision to remove the Prosecutor General (Iryna Venediktova) from office and to dismiss the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (Ivan Bakanov),” Zelenskyy said in a statement.

He said that “specific actions and any inaction of each official in the security sector and in law enforcement agencies will be evaluated.”

“As of today, 651 criminal proceedings have been registered regarding treason and collaboration activities of employees of prosecutor's offices, pretrial investigation bodies, and other law enforcement agencies,” the president added.

Meanwhile, Zelensky has appointed Oleksiy Symonenko as acting Prosecutor General via a decree, according to the Ukrainian national news agency Ukrinform.