Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday announced the resignation of all regional officials responsible for military recruitment to end a system of corruption that notably allows recruits to flee the military.
“Illegal enrichment, legalization of illegally obtained funds, illegal profits, illegal transportation of recruits across the border. Our solution: we fire all military commissars,” Zelensky announced on Telegram following an anti-corruption investigation.
The president reported that 112 criminal investigations have been launched following an inspection by Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies, the security services (SBU) and the prosecutor’s office, among others.
“There are abuses in different regions. Donetsk, Poltava, Vinnitsia, Odessa, Kiev,” he denounced, calling on the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Valeri Zaluzhi, to replace the dismissed officials with veterans of the war that had swept Russia on February 24, 2022 started. .
“This system must be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery in wartime is high treason,” he added.
According to Zelensky, military recruitment should be organized by “soldiers who have passed the front line, who cannot be in the trenches due to ill health or are maimed”.
The president promised to punish corrupt officials.
In July, Ukrainian authorities announced the preventive detention of a former military recruiter suspected of spending €4 million on the purchase of a luxury home in Spain during the Russian invasion.
The fight against corruption in Ukraine is one of the conditions for the European Union to keep its candidacy for the bloc.
Two cases stood out: in May the president of the Supreme Court was arrested for corruption and in January a scandal of irregularities in the supply of the army led to several dismissals from ministries, regional administrations and judiciary departments.
Source: DN
