Ukrainian President Mr Leonid Kuchma sacked the head of the SBU security service today, meeting a key demand of protesters who accuse the president and top officials of involvement in the fate of a missing reporter.
Presidential spokesman Mr Olexander Martynenko said Mr Leonid Derkach, the 61-year-old security service chief who worked for many years in the Soviet KGB, had been sacked and replaced by Mr Volodymyr Radchenko. He gave no reason.
The Ukrainian president has come under increasing pressure in recent weeks amid protests sparked by fury at the disappearance of Internet reporter Georgiy Gongadze. Gongadze vanished last September.
Reuters