Zelensky sacks top Ukraine officials

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

Ivan Bakanov, head of the powerful SBU security agency, and Iryna Venediktova, the prosecutor general, had been emblematic of Zelensky’s policy of putting young loyalists in charge of combatting corruption since sweeping to power in 2019. But nearly five months after Russia’s invasion, the president acknowledged that his two allies had failed to root out traitors and collaborators in their organisations.