President Sacks Officials in Scandal

President Leonid D. Kuchma dismissed the heads of two security agencies at the center of a scandal rocking Ukraine who are linked to the disappearance of an outspoken journalist, Russia’s Interfax news agency said.

Kuchma replaced Leonid Derkach, the chief of the State Security Service, and Volodymyr Shepel, the head of the State Guard Department, who are responsible for the security of the president and government leaders.

Journalist Georgi Gongadze, known for his criticism of the government and alleged high-level corruption, disappeared in September in what many lawmakers and fellow journalists described as a political case. Authorities say a headless body found in the woods outside Kiev, the capital, is probably his.