KIEV, July 19. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s removals from office of the prosecutor general and head of the security service on grounds of multiple cases of treason committed by their employees could be an attempt to put an end to a process that will accelerate as the government suffers more defeats on the battlefield, the deputy director of the Institute of CIS Countries think tank, Vladimir Zharikhin, told TASS on Monday.
He said there’s a lot of evidence that Ukrainian special services have been leaking information. As examples, he cited reports by the Russian Defense Ministry that Kiev was readying provocations, plans to use chemical weapons and strike civilian facilities - reports that made it useless to go forward with the plans.
"There are information leaks, which is characteristic of the Ukrainian political elite," Zharikhin said. "For it, treason is a timely reaction to the change in circumstances, so there are grounds for suspecting treason."
Ukraine Security Service Head Ivan Bakanov, who was relieved of his duties, could be a scapegoat, the analyst said.
The people that Kiev is accusing of treason could be guided by different motives, Zharikhin said.
"There are those who sincerely want to stop serving the Kiev regime. There are those who are guided by opportunistic considerations. But these processes got underway, they are growing in the special services and in the army as the Ukrainian government suffers military defeats. And one of the desperate attempts to fight them is to bring charges against the most senior officials in order to intimidate everyone else," he said.
The move to remove the prosecutor general from office, Zharikhin said, is attributable to leaks from the agency to the US.
"All the latest publications in the US press, speeches by US senators, including the Republican opposition, indicate that information is leaking to the US about the plundering of financial resources and US military assistance in very significant volumes. So, that’s also an attempt, through accusing the main actor, the prosecutor general, to limit the leakage of information, which is no less dangerous for the Zelensky team than the leak of information to Russia, because it risks reducing the amount of US military and financial support."
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky on July 17 removed from office the prosecutor general and the head of the security service.