• Ukraine’s security service’s deputy director Volodymyr Horbenko is the latest top-ranking official to be sacked.
• President Zelensky claims management failed to root out pro-Russian elements.
• MPs have voted to remove SBU chief Ivan Bakanov and Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has fired Ukraine’s security service’s deputy director, continuing his purge of the organization.

Volodymyr Horbenko is the latest official to be fired after Mr Zelensky claimed that management failed to root out pro-Russian elements within the agency.

Regional chiefs in several other cities were also fired, according to Mr Zelensky.

It comes after MPs voted to remove SBU chief Ivan Bakanov and Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova from their positions.

On Monday, Mr Zelensky’s adviser suggested that the pair had been suspended pending an investigation, after the president appeared to fire them in a late-night address.

However, the Ukrainian president presented a motion of no confidence in the pair to parliament on Tuesday, which was approved by an overwhelming majority.

For several weeks, there have been reports that Mr Zelensky wanted to replace Mr Bakanov after accusing him of failing to stop Russia’s advance in February.

Neither of the top officials, who were both personally appointed by Mr Zelensky, is accused of betraying their country. They did, however, run agencies where Russian interference appears to have had an impact on Ukraine’s ability to hold territory in the early days of the war.

David Arakhamia, the leader of Mr Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, said after the vote that new information had recently come to light and that the SBU purge would continue in the coming days.

“There will be many ‘cleanses’, because over the years many residents of the Russian special services have secretly entrenched themselves within the walls of the SBU, unfortunately,” Mr Arakhamia said, adding: “They got access to materials that they didn’t have before.”

Mr Zelensky said on Sunday that over 60 former SBU and prosecutor’s office employees were now working against Ukraine in Russian-occupied territory.

Vasyl Malyuk, Mr Bakanov’s deputy, was named acting head of the SBU in a decree posted on the presidential website on Thursday.

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