![]() In his late-night video address on March 31, Zelenskyy stripped Naumov and Kryvoruchko of their ranks and denounced them as “traitors.” Ukrainian authorities have charged all three former SBU officials with state treason. ![]() Underscoring the lack of loyalty within the top ranks of the SBU, a third former senior official, Andriy Naumov, a brigadier general who headed the agency’s internal security department - a unit whose responsibilities include preventing corruption within the SBU - fled abroad a few hours before Russia’s invasion on Feb. The Ukrainian officials said Russian troops were able to take Kherson so easily because of the failure on the part of SBU officials there to blow up the Antonovskiy Bridge that crosses the Dnipro river, allowing Russian troops to cruise into the city. It was occupied by the Russian army on March 3, seven days after President Vladimir Putin launched his new offensive. ![]() Kherson was the first and so far the only major Ukrainian city captured by Russian forces since the start of the all-out invasion. Ihor Sadokhin, his assistant and head of the local office’s Anti-Terrorist Center, is alleged by authorities to have tipped off Russian forces heading north from Crimea about the locations of Ukrainian mines and helped coordinate a flight path for the enemy’s aircraft while he fled in a convoy of SBU agents going west. Serhiy Kryvoruchko, head of Kherson’s SBU directorate, ordered his officers to evacuate the city before Russian troops stormed it, against Zelenskyy’s orders, authorities allege. ![]() The officials and the Western diplomat all said the concern is greater than just Bakanov - it’s also about the decisions of several senior agency personnel in the first hours and days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine that may have cost the country precious territory, including the strategic city of Kherson. Zelenskyy’s office, Bakanov and the SBU did not respond to POLITICO’s requests for comment. “We are not satisfied with his managerial, you know, because now you need … anti-crisis management skills like we don’t think that he has.” “We are highly unsatisfied with his job and are working to get rid of him,” a top Ukrainian official close to Zelenskyy told POLITICO on the condition of anonymity to talk about sensitive personnel issues. 24 and properly command his behemoth department of over 30,000 agents. Many in Kyiv allege that he failed to respond to Russia’s invasion on Feb. Now some feel vindicated as criticisms of Bakanov reverberate in the halls of government and parliament. But as one of the president’s most trusted confidants and business partners, there was little opponents could do to stop the move. Bakanov’s appointment in 2019 was criticized by opposition parties who said someone with his background was unfit to lead the top intelligence-gathering agency. For now, much of the SBU’s daily operations are being run from the presidential office and people still in good graces of Zelenskyy and his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak.īakanov is a lanky 47-year-old who’s been at Zelenskyy’s side since the latter rose from a scrawny comedian in the industrial, south-central city of Kryvyi Rih to a muscular war-hardened leader famous well beyond Ukraine’s borders. Ensuring a smooth transition may be tricky with the war still raging, with one official telling POLITICO that Zelenskyy is worried about the optics of sacking someone from his inner circle. Some said the old friends rarely speak these days, save for government business. ![]()
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