Why Zelensky wants to replace Ukraine’s top spy

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is planning to replace Ivan Bakanov, who runs the country’s spy agency. The decision comes as the once old friend has now fallen out of favor with the president.

Many in Kyiv allege that Bakanov failed to respond to Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24 and properly command his over 30,000 agents to handle the situation.

“We are highly unsatisfied with his job and are working to get rid of him,” a top Ukrainian official close to Zelensky told POLITICO on the condition of anonymity. “We are not satisfied with his managerial, you know, [skills] because now you need … anti-crisis management skills like we don’t think that he has.”

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Ivan Bakanov once ran Zelensky’s entertainment company and then his presidential campaign. But now, Zelensky is looking to replace him as a Western diplomat advised Kyiv on reforms needed to revamp the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

According to four officials close to the president, Zelensky and Bakanov have rarely spoken in recent times. With the war entering its fifth month, the transition from the old to the new is possibly going to be very tricky.

One official told Politico that Zelensky is worried about the reaction that will trigger if he sacks someone from his inner circle.

The daily operations in the SBU are being overseen by the presidential office, people very close to Zelensky and his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak.

However, officials and the Western diplomat are saying that concerns is greater than just Bakanov. Ukrainian authorities are trying to figure out the people from several senior agency personnel who in the first hours and days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine acted in a way that may have cost the country precious territory, including the strategic city of Kherson.

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Last month, Zelensky fired a top Ukrainian SBU official for “thinking only of himself” as Russian forces tried to seize Kharkiv. Ukrainian media identified the victim as Roman Dudin, the head of the SBU in Kharkiv.

Zelenskyy said the official was fired “for not working to defend the city from the first days of a full-scale war.”