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Amid Russia shelling, Ukraine aims to strengthen government

Russia Ukraine War
Posted at 8:45 PM, Jul 18, 2022
and last updated 2022-07-18 20:45:14-04

As Russia kept up its relentless shelling across the country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expanding the shakeup of his security services by suspending 28 more officials.

On Sunday, he dismissed two senior officials' allegations that their agencies contained "collaborators and traitors." In his nightly video address on Monday evening, Zelenskyy said a "personnel audit" of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) was underway, and the dismissal of the 28 officials was being decided. "Different levels, different areas of focus. But the reasons are similar — unsatisfactory results of work," Zelenskyy said.

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

“In the conditions of a war, Zelenskyy needs leaders that are capable of tackling several tasks at the same time -- to resist Russia’s intrigues within the country to create a fifth column, to be in contact and coordination with international experts, to do their actual job effectively,” Volodymyr Fesenko, a political analyst with the Penta Center think tank said, the Associated Press reported.