Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has nominated Andriy Kostin, a member of the president's Servant of the People party, as the country's next prosecutor general.
Zelensky formally requested that parliament vote to ratify Kostin's appointment to replace Iryna Venediktova, who was fired as prosecutor general earlier this month. It was unclear when parliament would vote on Kostin's appointment.
On July 19, Parliament formally dismissed Venediktova and the head of the domestic security service, Ivan Bakanov, two days after Zelenskiy suspended them for failing to track down Russian agents since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Following the vote, David Arakhamia, the leader of the ruling parliamentary party and a close Zelenskiy supporter, remarked on Telegram that Venediktova "remains in the team," implying that she was due for a diplomatic posting.
Zelensky fired Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova and Security Service of Ukraine chief Ivan Bakanov last week, criticising them for failing to deal with a huge number of traitors in their agencies.
As per reports earlier, over sixty officials from Bakanov's SBU security agency and the prosecutor's office were apparently working in Russian-occupied territory. In the video address, Zelensky said that 651 treason and collaboration cases had been opened against law enforcement officials.
Prosecutors in Ukraine are pushing to prosecute alleged war crimes as fighting rage
