Ukraine’s farm minister is latest corruption suspect

Kyiv also looks to undo recent Russian gains

KYIV — A Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials were assessing how they can recover battlefield momentum in the war against Russia.

Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days. However, he was released after paying 75 million hryvnias ($1.77 million) in bail, a statement said.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85 million) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47 million).

Ukraine is trying to root out corruption and a dragnet over the past two years has seen Ukraine’s defense minister, top prosecutor, intelligence chief, and other senior officials lose their jobs. That has been embarrassing as Ukraine receives tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to help fight Russia’s army, and the European Union and NATO have demanded widespread anti-graft measures before Kyiv can realize its ambition of joining the blocs.

On Friday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the

US will provide Ukraine additional Patriot missiles for its air defense systems as part of a massive $6 billion additional aid package.

The missiles will be used to replenish previously supplied Patriot systems. The package also includes more munitions for the National Advanced Surfaceto-Air Missile Systems, or NASAMS, and additional gear to integrate Western air defense launchers, missiles, and radars into Ukraine’s existing weaponry, much of which still dates back to the Soviet era.

Meanwhile, in Kyiv, patients were evacuated from a children’s hospital on Friday after a video circulated online saying Russia planned to attack it.

Parents lugged bags of clothes, toys, and food while carrying toddlers and leading children out of Kyiv City Children’s Hospital No. 1, on the city’s outskirts. Medics helped them into a fleet of waiting ambulances to be transported to other facilities.

In the video, a security official from Russian ally Belarus alleges that military personnel were based in the hospital. Kyiv city authorities said that was "a lie and provocation.”

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said civic authorities were awaiting a security assessment before deciding when it was safe to go back to the hospital.

“We cannot risk the lives of our children,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held talks Friday with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the key international organization coordinating the delivery of weapons and other aid to Ukraine.

Zelensky said he’d told members of the so-called Ramstein group that Ukraine needed longrange weapons, air defense weapons, and artillery ammunition to reverse Russian gains on the battlefield. The Kremlin’s forces have gained an edge over Kyiv’s army in recent months as Ukraine grappled with a shortage of ammunition and troops.

“The one-to-ten ratio of our country’s artillery to the Russian army inspires Putin to fight on,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram.” Our soldiers need artillery.”

Russia, despite sustaining high losses, has been taking control of small settlements as part of its effort to drive deeper into eastern Ukraine after capturing the city of Avdiivka in February, the UK defense ministry said Friday.

It’s been slow going for the Kremlin’s troops in eastern Ukraine and is likely to stay that way, according to the Institute for the Study of War in Washington.

However, the key hilltop town of Chasiv Yar is vulnerable to Russian onslaught, including glide bombs. The powerful Soviet-era weapons, originally unguided, have been retrofitted with a navigational targeting system to obliterate targets.

“Russian forces do pose a credible threat of seizing Chasiv Yar, although they may not be able to do so rapidly,” the Washington-based think tank said late Thursday.

It added that Russian commanders are likely seeking to advance as much as possible before the arrival in the coming weeks and months of new US military aid, which was held up for six months by political differences in Congress.