- Zelensky fired the head of security and the prosecutor
- Hundreds of cases of treason, collaborationism were started
- Russia is shelling the entire front line – Ukrainian army
- Kyiv claims the Western-supplied long-range weapons are working
- Moscow orders troops to step up operations
KYIV, July 18 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky fired the head of the country’s internal security service and state prosecutor, citing hundreds of cases of alleged treason and cooperation with Russia, as Moscow appeared ready to step up military operations.
Zelensky said that more than 60 employees of the Security Service and the Prosecutor’s Office of the SBU worked against Ukraine in the Russian-occupied territories and 651 cases of treason and cooperation were opened against law enforcement officials.
The firings on Sunday of Ivan Bakanov, the head of the security service, and Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova, who led efforts to prosecute Russian war crimes, and the high number of treason cases reveal the enormous challenge of Russian infiltration as Kyiv grapples with Moscow in what he does he says it is a struggle for survival.
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“Such a set of crimes against the foundations of national security of the state … raises very serious questions for the relevant leaders,” Zelensky said. “Each of these questions will be answered appropriately.
In his overnight address to the nation, Zelensky noted the recent arrest on suspicion of treason of the former head of the SBU, who controls the Crimea region, the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014 that Kyiv and the West still consider Ukrainian land.
Zelensky said he fired a senior security official at the start of the invasion, a decision he says has now been proven justified.
“Enough evidence has been gathered to report this person on suspicion of treason. All his criminal activities have been documented,” he said.
3000 CRUISE MISSILES
After failing to capture the capital Kyiv at the start of the invasion, Russian forces, using a campaign of devastating bombing, now control large parts of southern and eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists already control territory.
Zelensky said Russia has used more than 3,000 cruise missiles so far and it is “impossible to count” the number of artillery and other strikes so far.
But Western supplies of long-range weapons are beginning to help Ukraine on the battlefield, with Kyiv citing a series of successful strikes on 30 Russian logistics and munitions centers using several multiple launch missile systems recently supplied by the West.
The strikes are wreaking havoc on Russian supply lines and have significantly reduced Russia’s offensive capabilities, according to Ukraine’s defense ministry.
Ukrainian officials say the new US-made High Mobility Artillery Missile Systems (HIMARS) they began receiving last month allow them to hit targets in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, and other areas occupied by Russia .
“Good morning from HIMARS,” Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, wrote on Telegram on Sunday alongside a video showing a large explosion in what he said was another destroyed Russian munitions depot in southern Ukraine.
RUSSIA ACTIVATES OPERATIONS
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Saturday ordered military units to step up operations to prevent Ukrainian strikes on Russian-controlled areas, according to a ministry statement.
Ukrainian military intelligence later reported shelling along the entire front line in what it said was preparation for the next stage of the Russian offensive.
Ukraine’s military said Russia appeared to be regrouping units for an offensive on Slavyansk, a symbolically important Ukrainian-held city in the eastern Donetsk region.
Britain’s Ministry of Defense said on Sunday that Russia was also strengthening defenses in areas it occupies in southern Ukraine following pressure from Ukrainian forces and promises by Ukrainian leaders to drive Russia out. Read more
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion on February 24, calling it a “special military operation” to demilitarize the neighbor and rid it of dangerous nationalists.
Kyiv and the West say it is an imperialist land grab and an attempt to reconquer a country that broke free from Moscow’s rule with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II has killed more than 5,000 people, forced more than 6 million to flee Ukraine and left 8 million internally displaced, the United Nations says.
Ukraine and the West say Russian forces are targeting civilians and are involved in war crimes, allegations Moscow denies.
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Reports from Reuters bureaus; Written by Michael Perry; Editing by Lincoln Feast.
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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