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

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

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

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

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

Zelenskyy sacks Kharkiv security chief

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

Image: AP