Ukraine-News: Selenskyj chastises secret service chief - Scholz denounces EU weakness
Created: 07/17/2022, 21:48
By: Richard Strobl
Volodymyr Selenskyj (3rd from left) welcomes Chancellor Olaf Scholz (r, SPD), Klaus Iohannis (l) and Mario Draghi (2nd from left).
(Archive) © Kay Nietfeld/dpa
Ukraine President Zelenskyy has fired his intelligence chief.
Olaf Scholz appeals to the EU.
The diplomacy around the Ukraine war in the ticker.
KIEV - In the escalating Ukraine conflict, President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has dismissed two high-ranking employees.
In addition to the Attorney General Iryna Venediktova, SBU boss Ivan Bakanov also has to vacate his post.
Ukraine President fires secret service chief: Selenskyj fires old friend
This emerges from a decree by Ukraine President Zelenskyj on July 17.
The news comes as a surprise, especially in the case of Bakanov.
The head of security is considered a longtime friend of the president from his days as a television comedian.
He was appointed head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in 2019.
Iryna Venediktova has been Attorney General since 2020 and will be replaced by her deputy Oleksiy Symonenko, according to the report.
Reasons were not given in the short documents.
A successor for the post of secret service chief was not initially named.
Ukraine reaction in the EU: Scholz calls for change
Meanwhile, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been pushing for a stronger and “geopolitical European Union.”
In a guest article for the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" published on Sunday afternoon, the SPD politician writes that in response to the Ukraine war the EU must close its ranks in all areas in which it has previously disagreed: "In migration policy, for example, building European defence, technological sovereignty and democratic resilience”.
He announced concrete proposals from the federal government "in the next few months".
Scholz described the EU as the "lived antithesis of imperialism and autocracy", which is why it is a thorn in the side of those in power like Russia's President Vladimir Putin.
“Permanent disunity, permanent dissent between member states weakens us.
That is why Europe's most important answer to the turning point is: unity.
We absolutely have to keep them and we have to deepen them," warned Scholz.
The Chancellor called for an end to "selfish blockades of European decisions by individual member states".
In foreign policy, for example, the EU can no longer afford national vetoes if it wants to continue to be heard in a world of competing great powers.
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Scholz reaffirmed that Ukraine would be supported as long as it needed it, economically, humanitarianly, financially and through the supply of weapons.
"At the same time, we ensure that NATO does not become a war party."
Meanwhile, Putin's aide Dmitry Medvedev has threatened "doomsday" for all Ukrainians if an attempt is made to retake Crimea from Russia.
(dpa/rjs)
