Volodymyr Zelensky had assured that “this week would be the moment to take the appropriate decisions” and that “the State would take the necessary energetic measures” on corruption in Ukraine. Now it’s done.
This speech came shortly after the arrest of Vassyl Lozinsky, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure, accused by the National Anti-Corruption Office of Ukraine of having received a bribe of 400,000 dollars to facilitate the conclusion of contracts, in particular for the purchase of electricity generators. A sensitive issue given the frequent power outages caused by Russian attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure.
The president wanted to send a “signal to all those whose acts or conduct violate the principle of justice.”
Scandal over military supplies
The reaction of the presidency was immediate. On Tuesday, a series of top Ukrainian officials were sacked from their posts amid a corruption case involving military supplies.
At the origin of this scandal: a contract signed by the Ministry of Defense at an allegedly overvalued price for food products intended for soldiers. Selon une enquête du site d’information ZN.UA, ce contract de 13 billions of hryvnias (environment 324 million d’euros) to été passedé avec des prizes “deux à trois plus élevés” that the current rates in force for food products essential.
As a result, Deputy Defense Minister Viatcheslav Shapovalov, in charge of logistical support for the armed forces, was removed from his post on Tuesday.
“Due to the large public protest, which was largely caused by unfounded manipulations around the issue of supplying the Ukrainian armed forces, there are risks of destabilization of the army’s supply processes,” he justifies in his resignation letter. .
A relative of Zelensky fired
Then others followed. Volodymyr Zelensky’s deputy chief of staff, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, who has become a frequent government spokesman since the Russian invasion, announced his resignation Tuesday morning.
He is accused of having used an all-terrain vehicle loaned to Ukraine by the US group General Motors for personal use when it was destined for evacuations or humanitarian needs.
“Over the past few months, I have driven this car about 40,000 kilometers on business trips throughout Ukraine. I will not use this car in the future,” he said in comments reported by CNN, adding that the vehicle will be transferred “to one of the regions frontline, where it will be used for humanitarian purposes” in the coming days.
output cascade
In the hours after Kyrylo Tymoschenko’s announcement, many other people followed suit. Deputy Attorney General Oleksiï Simonenko has been accused of having recently gone on vacation to Spain while foreign travel, except for professional purposes, is prohibited for men of fighting age.
The governor of the Dnipro region, Valentin Reznichenko, was accused by various media outlets in November of awarding tens of millions of euros worth of road repair contracts to a group co-founded by his girlfriend who works as a fitness trainer. He resigned on Tuesday. Other local governors also left their posts.
On Monday, Pavlo Galimon, the deputy leader of the presidential “Servant of the People” party, was ousted on corruption charges linked to the purchase of a property in Kyiv for more than his declared income.
fight against corruption
A total of five regional governors, four deputy ministers and two heads of a government agency will leave their posts, in addition to the deputy head of the presidential administration and the deputy attorney general.
Volodymyr Zelensky was elected in 2019, notably for promising a relentless fight against corruption. According to the NGO Transparency International in 2021, Ukraine ranks 122 out of 180 in the Global Corruption Perceptions Index.
The European Union has made anti-corruption measures a key reform Ukraine must implement if it wants to gain candidate status for membership of the European bloc.
In a recent speech, the Ukrainian president promised that “there will be no return to what was in force in the past, to the way various people close to state institutions lived.”
Source: BFM TV
