Top Ukraine officials axed for corruption
KYIV PURGES GOVERNORS, SENIOR OFFICERS IN BIGGEST WAR SHAKE-UP
AAmong Ukrainian officials who resigned or were dismissed were the governors of the Kyiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
high-level shakeup in the Ukrainian government cost nearly a dozen senior officials their jobs, as the country’s president yesterday sought to root out entrenched corruption while conducting the fight against Russia’s military operation.
Among Ukrainian officials who resigned or were dismissed were the governors of the Kyiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and adjacent Dnipropetrovsk are frontline provinces now. Kyiv and Sumy were major battlefields earlier in the war.
A deputy defence minister, a deputy prosecutor, a deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office and two deputy ministers responsible for regional development were among the others who left.
History of graft
Some, though not all, had been linked with corruption allegations. Ukraine has a history of graft and shaky governance, and is under international pressure to show it can be a reliable steward of billions of dollars in Western aid.
Zelenskiy aide Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted: “The president sees and hears society. And he directly responds to a key public demand justice for all.” The purge came two days after a deputy infrastructure minister was arrested and accused of siphoning off $400,000 from contracts to buy generators — one of the first big corruption scandals to become public since the war began 11 months ago.
The Defence Ministry said Deputy Defence Minister Vyacheslav Shapovalov, responsible for supplying troops, had resigned to retain trust after what it called untrue media accusations of corruption. It followed a newspaper report that the ministry overpaid for food for troops, which the ministry denied.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy chief of staff in Zelenskiy’s office, announced his own resignation, also citing no reason. He had helped run the president’s 2019 election campaign and more recently had a role in overseeing regional policy.
Germany yesterday said it would decide “shortly” whether to authorise the export of powerful Germanmade Leopard battle tanks long sought by Kyiv and encouraged allies to start training Ukrainian forces to use them.
While Western nations have pledged ever more sophisticated military hardware in recent weeks to help Ukraine repel Russia’s attack, all eyes in Kyiv are on the battle tanks.
Berlin yesterday stopped short of granting permission for the transfer but underscored that a decision was imminent, provoking a defiant response from the Kremlin.
Poland also upped the ante by putting forward a formal application for the delivery of the German-made tanks from its stocks to Ukraine.
But in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was battling a deepening corruption scandal within his government, sacking several officials over graft while others resigned.
Ukraine and several of its allies have been urging Germany for weeks to allow the delivery of the Leopards, but a US-led meeting of Kyiv’s allies in Germany has failed to yield a decision.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius indicated yesterday that the moment of truth could be imminent, saying he had “expressly encouraged partner countries that have Leopard tanks that are ready for deployment to train Ukrainian forces on these tanks”.
“I expect a decision to be made shortly,” he added following talks with Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Berlin.
Under Germany’s war weapons control rules, countries using German-made armaments are required to seek Berlin’s permission if they wish to transfer them to a third party.
‘Lasting mark’
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the delivery of the tanks would “bring nothing good to the future relationship” between Berlin and Moscow.
“They will leave a lasting mark,” he warned.
Under Germany’s war weapons control rules, countries using German-made armaments are required to seek Berlin’s permission if they wish to transfer them to a third party.
Poland, one of the loudest voices calling for permission to send Leopard tanks, said earlier this month it was ready to deliver 14 of them to Kyiv within the framework of an international coalition of countries.
Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak yesterday said the country had now sent in a formal request.