President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Oleksandr Yakushev from the post of deputy head of the country’s security service. The decree was published on the website of the head of state.
Yakushev has held this post since March 2022.
Zelensky also signed decrees on the dismissal of Oleksandr Provotorov, head of the economic support department of the SBU, and Igor Nosk, head of the department for protecting state secrets and licensing of the special services. Oleg Khramov was appointed to the place of the latter.
The heads of the SBU departments in the Sumy and Zaporozhye regions, Eduard Fedorov and Boris Bezrukiy, also lost their positions. The Sumy branch was headed by Oleg Krasnoshapka; there is no decree on the appointment of the head of the Zaporizhzhya central office yet. (Russia annexed Zaporizhia Oblast in September 2022 after referendums that Kiev and most countries do not recognize as legitimacy, with the administrative center, the city of Zaporizhia, under Ukrainian control. In March, Acting Head of Zaporizhia Oblast Yevhen Balitsky officially moved the region’s capital to Melitopol.)
As RBC notes, since the beginning of the year, large-scale personnel changes have been taking place in the law enforcement and military departments of Ukraine. In January, more than ten high-ranking officials left their posts, including Deputy Defense Minister Vyacheslav Shapovalov and Deputy Director of the Department of Public Procurement of the Ministry of Defense Bogdan Khmelnitsky. This came after a scandal over overpriced military food purchases; officials were later suspected of embezzlement. Ukrainian deputies reported that the resignation of Minister Oleksiy Reznikov was also discussed, but this did not happen. The authorities also replaced the head of the customs service.
Zelensky explained the reshuffle as a desire to remove “any internal issues that interfere with the state.” The head of the National Security Council Alexei Danilov said that this work will continue, “all organs will be clean from people who are going to stain” the country, take bribes and interfere with business.
Source: Rosbalt
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