Zelensky says fired head of state security service in Kharkiv for failing to work towards city's defence

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he fired the head of the state security service in the Kharkiv region for failing to work toward the defence of the city in the first days of the war.

"I came, figured out and fired the head of the Security Service of Ukraine of the (Kharkiv) region for the fact that he did not work on the defence of the city from the first days of the full-scale war, but thought only about himself," Zelensky said in his daily national address. He spoke after visiting the country's war-ridden east for the first time since Russia's invasion.

Zelensky also said that taking Sievierodonetsk is Russia's principal aim, adding that all critical infrastructure in the region is destroyed.

"As a result of Russian strikes on Sievierodonetsk, all the city's critical infrastructure is destroyed... More than two-thirds of the city's housing stock is destroyed," Zelensky said in a televised speech.

"Taking Sievierodonetsk is the principal aim of the occupying contingents," he added.