Zelenskyy mulls sacking Ukraine's top spy over 'security failures' amid Russian invasion

As ongoing brutal war between Russia and Ukraine continues to intensify, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is looking to dismiss country's top spy over "security failures." According to officials close to Zelenskyy, President is mulling replacing Ivan Bakav, who currently oversees Ukraine's spy service, with someone more suited to lead Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) at a time of war, POLITICO reported. tably, Bakav is Zelenskyy's old friend who once oversaw latter's entertainment company as well as his presidential campaign. 

  According to reports, 47-year-old Bakav has been by Zelenskyy's side ever since latter evolved from being a scraggy comedian in south-central city of Kryvyi Rih to a powerful, battle-hardened leader well-kwn even outside of Ukraine. However, back in 2019, opposition parties had questioned Bakav's appointment, claiming that someone with his qualification was t suited to run country's top intelligence ncy. w, many in Kyiv allege that he failed to command his vast department of over 30,000 nts appropriately in wake of Russia's invasion on February 24.   

"We are highly unsatisfied with his (Bakav) job...": Ukrainian official

"We are highly unsatisfied with his job and are working to get rid of him. We are t satisfied with his manrial, you kw, skills because w you need… anti-crisis manment skills and we don’t think that he has," a top Ukrainian official close to Zelenskyy told POLITICO on condition of anymity.  SBU, which employs over 30,000 staff, is nearly as big as Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of United States, and more than seven times larger than United Kingdom's MI5. Apart from overseeing country's domestic intelligence and counterintelligence garing, SBU is also responsible for combating ecomic crimes and corruption.

Zelenskyy sacks Kharkiv security chief

It should be mentioned here that Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has t hesitated from taking some stern actions since Russia launched a full-fledged war in late February. In month of May, he sacked security chief of Kharkiv region owing to his "poor performance." " Kharkiv's security chief did t work eugh to defend city from very initial days of full-scale war but thought only of himself personally," Zelenskyy stated in one of his video addresses to nation. 

Im: AP