Ukraine's president fires senior intelligence official

MOSCOW

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired Roman Semenchenko, the head of the Department for the Protection of National Statehood of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), on Wednesday.

The order announcing the dismissal does not give the reason for the decision, but Ukrainian media outlet Strana claims it was connected to the surveillance of journalists involved in the Bihus.info investigative journalism project.

In mid-January, footage was circulated online showing people who look exactly like Bihus journalists using drugs.

Then opposition lawmakers accused Zelenskyy of purposefully spying on journalists who revealed facts of corruption of officials and demanded a reaction from the political leadership and law enforcement agencies.

After a wave of criticism and coverage of the scandal in Western media, the SBU was forced to react and announced the launch of an investigation into the wiretapping of journalists.