Zelenskiy to replace head of Ukraine’s security service

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he plans to replace the head of the country’s SBU security service, Vasyl Maliuk, as part of a broader reshuffle appointing a new presidential private secretary.

Maliuk was appointed SBU chief in February 2023, having previously served as acting chief for months.

During its tenure, the service carried out a number of high-profile operations, including a daring drone strike on dozens of Russian strategic bombers deployed thousands of kilometers away from Ukraine.

I met with Vasyl Maliuk. I thanked him for his combat service and suggested that he focus specifically on this line of work. Ukraine should have more asymmetric operations against the invader and the Russian state, and more solid results should be achieved in eliminating the enemy.

The SBU also said it oversaw an attack on a Russian submarine and three attacks on the bridge connecting Russia to the occupied Crimean peninsula, a key Russian logistics node.

Maliuk was praised by analysts for improving the SBU’s effectiveness after his predecessor Ivan Bakanov was dismissed by Zelenskiy in July 2022 for failing to eliminate Russian spies.

Zelenskiy stated that he asked Maliuk in

Maliuk confirmed his resignation on the Telegram platform and said that he would remain in the SBU system to implement “world-class asymmetric special operations.”

The move comes just days after Zelenskiy announced that military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov would be the new chief of staff and would seek to appoint new defense and energy ministers.

Zelenskiy said that Mykhailo Fedorov, deputy head of government and minister of digital transformation, will take over the defense portfolio from Denys Shmyhal.

Shmyhal, who was also prime minister before, will be the minister of energy.

The parliament must first approve the appointments.

with DPA