KYIV, July 18 — Ukraine faced new turmoil Sunday with President Volodymyr Zelensky announcing he sacked his top two law enforcement officials, in the government’s most serious shakeup since Russia launched its deadly invasion in February.
In a national address, Zelensky said over 650 cases of suspected treason and aiding and abetting Russia by Ukrainian security officials are currently being investigated, including 60 cases of officials who he said have remained in territories occupied by Russia and are “working against our state.” But Igor Besukh, a chef in the local city of Kramatorsk, just 20 kilometres from the frontline, was determined to stay strong in the face of Russian attacks.
In a BBC television interview broadcast Sunday, the head of Britain’s armed forces, Admiral Tony Radakin, estimated that 50,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded in the invasion with nearly 1,700 Russian tanks and some 4,000 armoured fighting vehicles destroyed. Russia’s defence ministry said in its daily briefing Sunday that it destroyed a “warehouse for Harpoon anti-ship missiles delivered to Ukraine by Nato” in the port city of Odessa.