World News

Zelensky ousts key staffers as Ukraine’s war against Russia continues

By
Social Links for Chris Harris
Published March 30, 2024, 4:16 p.m. ET

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continued to clean house Saturday even as Russia bombarded the nation, carrying out 75 airstrikes in just 24 hours.

Zelensky ousted two key staffers — his top aide, Serhiy Shefir, along with the nation’s Commissioner for Soldiers’ Rights, Alyona Verbytska, along with four other government workers.

No reasons were offered for their expulsions, The Kyiv Independent reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ousted two top staffers and four other government workers.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ousted two top staffers and four other government workers. APAImages/Shutterstock
Large flashes come from a self propelled howitzer fired by Ukranian soldiers.
Ukrainian service members fire a self propelled howitzer toward Russian troop in a front line in southern Ukraine. REUTERS
A young man and a woman, both volunteers, clear rubble from Kyiv State Arts Academy after it was hit by a Russian missile.
Volunteers and students of Kyiv State Arts Academy clear the rubble after the Academy was partly ruined during the Russian missile attack a few days ago in Kyiv Saturday. AP

The latest personnel changes come just a day after Zelensky dismissed Andrii Smirnov and Oleksii Dniprov as the deputy heads of his office and are the latest in a series of changes he’s made at the top of the military and government in recent months.

Shefir was appointed as Zelensky’s advisor soon after he assumed the presidential office in May 2019. A personal friend of Zelensky’s, he worked as a producer on “Servant of the People,” the comedy series that shot Zelensky to fame, in which he played a high-school history teacher who becomes Ukraine’s top politician.

In 2021, Shefir survived an assassination attempt, believed to have been orchestrated by the Kremlin.

Serhiy Shefir (left) with Zelensky on his inauguration day in 2019.
Serhiy Shefir (left) with Zelensky on his inauguration day in 2019. REUTERS
A Ukrainian tanks fires on the positions of Russian troops, igniting flashes to both sides and in the distance beyond some trees in the background.
A Ukrainian tanks fires on the positions of Russian troops. REUTERS
Two Ukranian women walk near a site affected by a recent shelling, where damaged trees little the ground and ramshackle buildings are seen in the background.
Pedestrians walk at a site affected by a recent shelling, in the town of Mykolaivka. AFP via Getty Images

Zelensky also let go of Natalia Pushkaryova, the president’s external commissioner for volunteer activities and three advisors who were not part of his staff, including Ukrainian entrepreneur Mykhailo Radutsky and economist Oleh Ustensko.

On Tuesday, Zelensky replaced National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov with the chief of his Foreign Intelligence Service, Oleksandr Lytvynenko.

The head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine blesses a special evacuation train in Kyiv.
Metropolitan Epiphanius, the head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), blesses a special evacuation train in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday. MAXYM MARUSENKO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

In August, the wartime leader fired all of the country’s military recruitment chiefs over corruption claims and followed that move up in September by replacing the nation’s defense minister amid the corruption crackdown.

Since Friday, Russia has also fired 38 missiles on Ukraine, and waged 98 rocket launcher attacks.

In other developments:

  • Polish Prime Minister Donald Tuskwarned that Europe has entered a “prewar era,” and called on European nations to increase their defense budgets. “I don’t want to scare anyone, but war is no longer a concept from the past,” Tusk said while addressing a group of journalists. “It’s real and it started over two years ago.”
  • More than 100,000 people living in eastern Kharkiv remain without power following recent targeted attacks against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure last week. In a statement, Ukrainian energy provider DTEK said 15 missiles took out a thermal power plant and damaged a number of substations.
  • Russian officials are still trying to connect Ukraine to the Moscow concert hall terror attacks despite the claim of responsibility by an ISIS offshoot. In Moscow’s latest attempt, Russians alleged four of the gunmen were captured as they tried fleeing to Kyiv to claim ” a reward.” Ukraine denies any involvement. Meanwhile, American intelligence has confirmed the claims of an Afghanistan arm of the Islamic State that it orchestrated the March 22 attack that left 137 people dead.
  • Just in time for Easter, Ukraine’s Pravda reported the World Russian People’s Council adopted an “order” characterizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “holy war” and claiming “the entire territory of present-day Ukraine should be included in the area of Russia’s exclusive influence.” The decree also stated Russian soldiers are defending the “unified spiritual space” and the world from “the tyranny of globalism and the victory of the West, which has fallen into Satanism.”