Vasyl Maliuk, pictured in February 2024, resigned Monday as head of the security service of Ukraine. File Photo courtesy of EPA
Vasyl Maliuk, Ukraine’s top spy chief, resigned Friday under pressure from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has shuffled multiple key governmental positions amid a corruption scandal.
Maliuk initially refused to step down as head of Ukraine’s security service, known locally as SBU, but relented. He will remain with the agency in a different capacity.
“I am leaving my post as head of the Security Service,” Maliuk wrote in a post on Telegram. “I will stay in the system to carry out operations that continue to inflict maximum damage on the enemy. A strong, modern intelligence service is key to our state’s security.”
The announcement came after a Monday meeting with Zelensky, who reassigned Maliuk to overseeing unconventional warfare.
“I thanked him for his combat service and proposed that he focus on this line of work specifically,” Zelensky said.
“The must be more Ukrainian asymmetric operations against the occupier and the Russian state and more solid results in eliminating the enemy. This is where Vasyl is at his strongest, and this is exactly what he will continue to do within the Security Service of Ukraine.”
Neither Maliuk nor Zelensky specified the reason for the former spy chief’s ouster, but the president has said he wants fresh perspectives around him after nearly four years of war, The Guardian reported.
The Kyiv Independent reported that Maliuk has been involved in actions against anti-corruption bodies in Ukraine. Zelensky has dismissed or reassigned several people in the government behind a July crackdown on allegedly corrupt individuals working for Russia. Anti-corruption activists and groups said the crackdown actually targeted those investigating allegedly corrupt figures close to Zelensky.
The SBU arrested multiple officials in the National Anti-Corruption Bureau as part of the July plot.
