Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Reuters
Reuters
Politics
By Tom Balmforth and Max Hunder

Zelenskiy sidelines close allies in Kyiv's biggest purge of war

Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Ivan Bakanov and Ukraine's Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova attend a news briefing in Kyiv, Ukraine May 11, 2021. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy sidelined his childhood friend as head of Ukraine's security service and another close ally as top prosecutor in Kyiv's biggest internal purge of the war, citing their failure to root out Russian spies.

The careers of SBU security service chief Ivan Bakanov and Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova had personified Zelenskiy's policy of putting young loyalists in charge of fighting corruption since the former TV comic came to power in 2019.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.