The sidelining of Ukraine’s security chief and its prosecutor general by Volodymyr Zelenskiy has renewed questions over Russian intelligence infiltration of key ministries before the war, as well as suggesting divisions among the president’s inner circle of top officials are becoming increasingly public.
After recent anonymous briefings against Zelenskiy’s childhood friend Ivan Bakanov – who had been in charge of the 30,000-strong state security service, the SBU, since 2019 – over claims of failure to counter Russian infiltration, he was abruptly suspended on Sunday along with the prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, who had been leading war crimes investigations.
