The Kharkiv scandal with Dudin: Why Bakanov fell out of favor with Zelensky
The main complaint against the head of the SBU is that he “disappeared from the radar” for more than a month, writes DS.
SBU chief Ivan Bakanov's position is increasingly shaky. A new scandal erupting in Kharkiv could lead to Bakanov's dismissal before the war is over.
Why was Dudin fired?
On May 30, Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree dismissing Roman Vladimirovich Dudin from his position as head of the SBU department in the Kharkiv region. The day before, Zelenskyy visited Kharkiv and, following his visit, recorded a video message explaining the reasons for Dudin's dismissal.
"I held a meeting with the regional and city leadership," Zelenskyy said. "They have 100% cooperation: the army, the police, the mayor of Kharkiv, the regional state administration—everyone is working for victory and doing so very effectively. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the local leadership of the Security Service of Ukraine. I arrived, sorted things out, and fired the head of the regional Security Service for failing to work to protect the city from the first days of the full-scale war, thinking only of himself. Law enforcement will determine his motives."
This dismissal, of course, sparked a flurry of comments in Kharkiv, many of them unflattering to Dudin. For example, well-known Kharkiv volunteer Roman Donik claimed that this figure fled the city on February 24 "and evacuated all his security officers 250 km from Kharkiv." Later, when "civilians with smoothie bottles were chasing Russian special forces around the city," this figure "was using his henchmen, under the cover of the Troitsky and Ukrainian Armed Forces, to steal cars and protect car dealership security guards. They couldn't get rid of him for three months. "Because he's a valuable asset to Bakanov," the volunteer recounted.
The scandal didn't end there. The dismissed head of the SBU department decided to publicly defend himself. On June 1, he told Radio Liberty that his dismissal was "an exclusively political decision" backed, among others, by local authorities in Kharkiv and the region and "the so-called military commandant of the city." "I have a clear idea who is behind this dismissal. They were practically all present during the president's last visit to Kharkiv," he emphasized.
On May 30 (the day Dudin's dismissal decree was signed), a Facebook page titled "Roman Vladimirovich" appeared, in which Dudin addressed the president. Apparently, he believed Zelenskyy had been misinformed by the participants of the Kharkiv meeting on May 29, and so the dismissed SBU chief decided to target them.
"I'll be adding video and audio files (provided by patriotic citizens) regarding those involved in yesterday's meeting. If these people dished dirt on me yesterday, I believe society should know its heroes (by the way, they're very fond of awarding themselves and taking credit for things they had nothing to do with). I think you'll also be interested to see a governor who admits he has no influence on the region's processes, a police chief who agrees to negotiate with the occupier, and his deputy who gives an interview in uniform with a stolen cap on his head... A deputy who likely has ties to the FSB. A garrison commandant who allegedly ordered the murder of his former boss. And much more that patriotic citizens are sending," he told Zelensky.
He backed up his threat with a video in which the head of the regional military administration, Oleh Sinegubov, admits he has no influence on the situation in the Kharkiv region. Dudin then hinted again that he had numerous recordings and addressed the president: "I ask you to publicly refute the information contained in your appeal regarding the inaction of the leadership of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region and apologize to the personnel of this agency."
In addition to his appeal to the president, Dudin's recollections of the first days of the Russian invasion of the Kharkiv region appeared on the same Facebook page. They made some very serious accusations, the gist of which was that Kharkiv was about to be surrendered to the enemy. "I'll be honest—there were two people who didn't surrender Kharkiv: [SBU head Ivan] Bakanov and [Defense Ministry Main Intelligence Directorate Chief Kirill] Budanov, who carried out a colossal amount of work on the eve of the war, which allowed the city to be sealed off immediately."
And here we come to the most important point: why Dudin was actually fired. Undoubtedly, many complaints can be leveled against his actions. But it seems he wasn't fired for that—or at least not only for that. Rather, he was fired simply because Bankova felt the need to blame someone for all the failures in preparations for a full-scale war.
That's why Dudin started threatening Zelenskyy with dirt on Kharkiv officials—he doesn't want to end up a scapegoat. But this scandal also raises another possibility: his boss, Bakanov, could be fired after Dudin.
Risks for Bakanov
In fact, until February 24, Bakanov's position in Zelenskyy's power structure was considered rock-solid. But the full-scale war changed a lot.
Ukraine truly was unprepared for a Russian invasion from three directions simultaneously—north, east, and south. The main argument Bankova came up with in Zelenskyy's defense was "he didn't run away." This was essentially the leitmotif of the entire telethon and all the "positive bloggers" at Bankova. But that's precisely why any questions about those in his inner circle who, unlike him, ran away are extremely disadvantageous for Zelenskyy.
On February 24, the first day of full-scale war, not only many Kharkiv officials but also many from the capital fled and hid. The government quarter was half empty. Some security forces even fled (or, in poetic parlance, relocated) from Kyiv to the western regions. Specifically, media reported that the Main Investigative Directorate of the State Bureau of Investigation, with the exception of a couple of departments, was transferred to the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. There were also reports that Artem Sytnyk, the now former director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), had fled to Lviv, changing safe houses there every couple of weeks.
Suspicions have been widely expressed on social media that SBU head Ivan Bakanov was among those "evacuated" from Kyiv to a safer location. This could easily be refuted if videos of Bakanov in Kyiv in late February or at least March had been posted on the SBU website. However, Bakanov only appeared on the SBU website a month after the onset of full-scale Russian aggression: on the morning of March 25, his address on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the SBU was published—a written address, not a video recording. It was only on April 9 that Bakanov was spotted in the capital, presenting awards to SBU officers and military personnel along with Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov.
Zelenskyy has other reasons for his distrust of Bakanov. On March 31, the president dismissed the head of the SBU department in the Kherson region. Sergei KrivoruchkoThat same evening, he announced in a video message that he had stripped Krivoruchko of his rank of brigadier general. He also stripped Andriy Naumov, former head of the SBU's Main Directorate of Internal Security, of his rank of brigadier general. He commented on this with very harsh words: "Today, another decision was made regarding antiheroes. I don't have time to deal with all the traitors. But gradually, they will all be punished."
Now the next antihero It turned out to be DudinApparently, he fears that all the failures in Kharkiv's war preparations will be blamed on him. And that the nationwide failures will be blamed on Bakanov. That's why Dudin is making counter-accusations: that the SBU, under Bakanov's leadership, responded appropriately to the Main Intelligence Directorate's reports of Russian plans and did everything in its power.
Before the Kharkiv scandal, the most likely assumption was that Zelenskyy would not fire Bakanov until martial law ended. But now the situation has changed, and it's possible Dudin will drag Bakanov down with him.
Now, it seems, they're trying to reach an agreement with Dudin. The Facebook page he created on the morning of June 1st was updated with a lengthy report on the activities of the SBU's Kharkiv region directorate during the 95 days of the war, but disappeared a few hours later. If Dudin remains silent, perhaps Bakanov will retain his post, and Dudin himself will receive guarantees against further persecution. Although, of course, now is not the time for anyone to give anyone credible guarantees.
In topic: Who paid Bakanov to avoid being included on the sanctions list?
Thieves are rushing into the SBU. Verkhoglyad and Krivoruchko. Part two
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