Vasyl Malyuk ends as head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
“I am leaving the position of the head of the Security Service of Ukraine. However, I remain in the SBU system to participate in the implementation of world-class asymmetric special operations that will continue to inflict maximum damage on the enemy,” said his statement, which the Secret Service posted on her website.
“I am convinced that a strong and modern special service is a guarantee of the security of our state. This is precisely what the changes that the President of Ukraine is introducing in the field of defense are leading to, and I thank him for that,” Malyuk added.
MP Oleksiy Honcharenko stated that the new director of the department will most likely be General Yevgeny Chmara, the former head of the SBU Special Operations Center.
Malyuk’s departure from the head of the SBU is another change in the Ukrainian intelligence services. On Friday, it was announced that Kyrylo Budanov will move from the head of military intelligence HUR to the post of head of Zelensky’s office. His place will then be taken by the current head of the external intelligence (SZRU) Oleh Ivashchenko.
“Turned the SBU into an effective special service”
Rumors that President Volodymyr Zelenskyi wants to dismiss Malyuk appeared a few days ago. On Saturday, both men, according to the server Ukrainian Pravda met, but the head of the SBU refused to submit a request for resignation.
The server wrote that he justified his position by saying that he has several large-scale “Cobweb” operations in the final stages, and abandoning them at this time could seriously endanger them.
Malyuk also received public support from high-ranking Ukrainian military and public officials.
“Removing Vasyl Malyuk from the post of head of the Security Service of Ukraine would seriously weaken Ukraine’s ability to defend itself,” he warned earlier in an interview with server Politico one of the Ukrainian officials.
“Maljuk is in his place and the results of the security service prove it. It was he who turned the SBU into an effective special service that carries out unique operations and gives Ukraine strong ‘cards’ at the negotiating table,” he added on condition of anonymity.
Vasyl Maljuk
Vasyl Maljuk was born in 1983 in the Zhytomyr region and joined the SBU structures at the age of eighteen. He began his career as an investigator, but soon specialized in the fight against corruption and organized crime.
In 2014, he participated in operations in Donbas, where he received the first award for courage. Shortly before the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, he held the position of Deputy Minister of the Interior. During the first days of the conflict, he actively participated in the battles for the strategic airport in Hostomel, where the fate of Kyiv was decided.
He began to assert himself in the leadership of the SBU during the presidency of Volodymyr Zelensky, who saw in him a capable, loyal and systematically thinking professional. In 2020, he was appointed first deputy to the then head of the service, Ivan Bakanov, whom he later replaced.
Maljuk’s appointment as head of the SBU in February 2023 was seen as a signal of change – finally a professional with a proven track record, not a political nominee. Together with President Zelensky, he worked on Operation Spider.
Under his leadership, not only the scope but also the style of operations expanded significantly. Examples include the successful naval drone attacks on Russian warships in the Black Sea, as well as the claim of responsibility for the Crimean bridge explosion in October 2022.
Criticism
Ukrainska Pravda wrote that Zelensky considers Malyuk to be one of the key faces of last year’s campaign against the anti-corruption institutions NABU and SAPO, which was launched by the former head of the presidential office, Andriy Jermak, and from whom the Office of the President is now trying to distance itself as visibly as possible.
Malyuk’s team, on the other hand, according to Ukrainská Pravda, believes that the resignation is nothing more than retaliation by Jermak, who continues to be in Zelensky’s immediate vicinity.
