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Volodymyr Zelensky visiting the front in Kharkiv
Photo: -- / dpa
At the beginning of April, the Ukrainian President drew attention to himself by releasing two high-ranking officials.
According to his own statements, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has now fired the head of the intelligence service in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
He found that from the beginning of the Russian war of aggression, he was not concerned with defending the city, "but only thought of himself," said Zelenskyj in his daily video speech on Sunday evening.
The law enforcement authorities would now investigate the motives behind it.
The President visited the east of his country on Sunday for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.
His office published a video on Telegram, which showed Zelenskyy wearing a bulletproof vest inspecting destroyed buildings in Kharkiv and the surrounding area.
During his visit, he also met the governor of the Kharkiv region and the mayor of the country's second largest city.
He describes the destruction in the city of Kharkiv as an example of Russia's war of annihilation.
"Black, burnt-out, half-ruined apartment buildings face east and north with their windows - to where the Russian artillery fired from," he said in a video message on Sunday.
Russia can look into these houses like a mirror.
"To see how much it has lost in these 95 days of the war against Ukraine," Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyj: »Russia has lost all cultural ties to the free world«
Russia not only lost the battle for Kharkiv, but also for the capital Kyiv and northern Ukraine, the president said.
“It has lost its own future and any cultural ties to the free world.
They're all burned.” A third of the area around Kharkov is still occupied by Russian troops.
"We have to liberate the entire area," Zelenskyy emphasized.
In April, Selenskyj said he had fired two high-ranking members of the security service.
As he explained in a video message at the time, these were the overall head of internal security and the head of the agency's branch in the Kherson region.
The president chose very clear words in his April speech: "I do not have time to deal with all traitors, but they will all be punished one by one." The two men had broken their oath to defend Ukraine .
He did not give exact details.
jok/AFP