Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky removed the head of his State Security Service, Ivan Bakanov from office and replaced the country’s top prosecutor, according to official decrees published late Sunday.
The State Security Service is key to intelligence gathering during the war with Russia.
Bakanov was dismissed under a “disciplinary statute”. He and Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova were removed under presidential wartime powers.
Bakanov is part of a circle of Zelensky friends from his days as a television comedian.
He fell out of favour after a series of failures and the loss of the Kherson region, Politico reported in June.
Meanwhile, a week ahead of the war’s five-month mark, Russian troops have been commanded by the nation’s defence minister “to further intensify the actions of units in all operational areas.”
Sergei Shoigu’s directive on Saturday followed a series of deadly missile strikes on civilian targets far from the front lines.
On Sunday, Russian rocket strikes on the Zaporizhzhia region triggered field fires, state officials said. Russian missiles hit an industrial facility in the southern city of Mykolaiv on Sunday, the city’s mayor said.
Ukraine’s troops repelled Russia’s advance near villages close to the town of Bahkmut, which together with Siversk is the next target for the Kremlin’s offensive in the east, according to an update from military headquarters in Kyiv.
In the Kharkiv region, Russia’s troops are focusing their efforts on holding defence to prevent Ukrainian counterattacks.
