Zelensky fired yet another top Ukrainian figure. The reason cited by the leader from Kyiv

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy dismissed the first deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Ruslan Demcenko, on whose account a journalistic investigation put an agreement signed in 2010 and which favored the occupation of the Crimean peninsula by Russia, the agency reports on Monday EFE, quoted by Agerpres.

According to the Ukrainian publication The Kyiv Independent, Zelenski’s decision is related to the said investigation published in November by Radio Free Europe.

Zelenski’s main adviser, Mihailo Podoleak, says, however, that the dismissal of Demchenko – who has been in that position since June 2020 – is motivated by “personal reasons related to the state of health” and is not related to “any theory” of the conspiracy”.

Demchenko’s anti-Ukraine move

According to that journalistic investigation, Ruslan Demcenko in 2010 supported the signing of the agreement known as the Kharkiv Pact, by which Ukraine extended to Russia the rent of naval installations in Crimea in exchange for the purchase of Russian natural gas under favorable conditions.

The new dismissal is part of the series of dismissals recently ordered by President Zelensky in the system of Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, the most notable being those of Ivan Bakanov, head of the Security Service (SBU) and childhood friend of the president, and of Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova.