Ukraine purges officials as combat continues

KYIV, Ukraine — With Russian shelling across the country showing no signs of easing, Ukraine’s leaders on Monday looked to strengthen their own ranks after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy removed two senior officials over allegations they hadn’t cleared their agencies of “collaborators and traitors.”

Internal investigations were to be launched after Ivan Bakanov, the head of Ukraine’s Security Service, or SBU, and Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, were dismissed. Acting heads of the two agencies have been appointed.

Zelenskyy cited hundreds of criminal proceedings into treason and collaboration by people within those departments and other law enforcement agencies.

“Six months into the war, we continue to uncover loads of these people in each of these agencies,” Andriy Smirnov, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said Monday.

Analysts said the move is designed to strengthen Zelenskyy’s control over the army and security agencies, which have been led by people appointed before the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24. Zelenskyy “needs an effective Prosecutor (General’s) office, and (an effective) SBU“agency, said Volodymyr Fesenko, a political analyst with the Penta Center think tank.

After appointing an acting chief prosecutor on Sunday, Zelenskyy signed a decree Monday naming the first deputy head of the SBU, Vasyl Maliuk, as acting head. Maliuk, 39, is known for efforts to fight corruption in the security agencies; his appointment was seen as part of Zelenskyy’s efforts to get rid of pro-Russian staffers in the SBU.

Meanwhile, Russia pressed forward with its missile and shelling attacks, which Ukrainian officials said were designed to intimidate the civilian population and create panic. Ukraine’s presidential office said seven Ukrainian regions had suffered from attacks in the previous 24 hours.

Ukraine’s Emergency Service said at least six people were killed by Russian shelling Monday targeting the city of Toretsk in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. Toretsk was taken briefly in the Russian invasion of 2014, but Ukrainian forces ended up taking the city back.

Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said Russian shelling of the region is incessant. Four Russian strikes had been carried out on the city of Kramatorsk, he said, urging civilians to evacuate.

Nearly a 1,000 civilians were evacuated to Ukraine on Monday from Russian-held territories in the northern Kharkiv region, Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said. About a third of the region remains in Russian hands after Moscow’s troops overran it in April. Kharkiv is Ukraine’s second-largest city, and is close to the border with Russia.