As the Ukrainian army continues to hold out against Russian shelling in the east and the country waits for its Western allies to send tanks, several corruption scandals have hit the Kyiv government. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed on Monday night to root out corruption in the administration and announced a reshuffle in the administration.
This Tuesday the resignations or dismissals have occurred in a cascade. Three deputy ministers, a Zelensky aide, the deputy attorney general and five regional governors left their posts.
On Sunday, Ukrainian anti-corruption police reported that they had detained Deputy Infrastructure Minister Vassil Lozinski, suspected of taking a $400,000 bribe for importing generators last September, a charge he denies, as the country grappled with power outages from Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure.
Separately, a journalistic investigation accused the Ukrainian Defense Ministry of overpaying vendors for food for soldiers. The provider claimed that it made a technical error and that there was no movement of money involved.
This news comes at a time when Ukraine is asking its Western allies for more weapons to counter Russian attacks, including hundreds of modern main battle tanks such as the powerful German-made Leopard 2 tanks. Corruption scandals could discourage supporters of sending military aid to Kyiv and bolster the most reluctant.
In this context, Zelensky tried to settle the scandals in his late-night message on Monday, in which he assured that changes in senior positions were being carried out at higher and lower levels.
Deputy Defense Minister Viacheslav Shapovalov, who is responsible for supplying the army with food and equipment, left his post on January 24, citing "media accusations" of corruption.
He assured that these accusations are unfounded, and the ministry backed him with a statement saying that Shapovalov's decision is "a gesture of dignity" that will help maintain confidence in the department.
On Monday Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov declared that it was an "artificial information attack". According to the Zn.ua website, the Ministry of Defense signed a contract to receive food products at an overvalued price by 2023. The contract would be for 13,000 million grivnas (about 324 million euros), "two or three times above" the current prices for basic food products.
Shortly before, Kirilo Timoshenko, deputy head of the presidential administration, also announced his resignation. He did not explain the direct reasons that led him to leave his position. "I thank the President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky, for the trust and the opportunity to do good deeds every day and every minute," the official wrote on Telegram, where he also thanked the army "for saving and defending our country."
Timoshenko, who is one of the president's aides who have worked with him since his election in 2019, has been at the center of several scandals. In October, he was accused of using an SUV donated to Ukraine by the American group General Motors for humanitarian purposes. After the revelations, he claimed to have transferred the vehicle to the needs of the front.
Soon after, the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine announced the dismissal of Deputy Prosecutor General Oleksiy Simonenko. He did not specify the reasons, but said that he had been "according to his own desire" of the affected person.
Simonenko started working at the general prosecutor's office in 2020. The Ukrainskaya Pravda daily, citing Security Council and police sources, reported that Simonenko signed his resignation letter on January 23. According to the publication, he was asked to resign after learning that at the end of 2022 Simonenko spent ten days with his family in Spain to spend the New Year.
Except for professional reasons, foreign travel is normally prohibited for Ukrainian men of fighting age.
In his recorded message on Monday, Zelensky prohibited Ukrainian officials and deputies from traveling abroad for vacations or other purposes unrelated to state needs.
During Russia's offensive against Ukraine, which has lasted for eleven months, the trips abroad of deputies and officials have caused several scandals in Ukraine.
"If they want to rest now, they will do so outside of civil service. Officials will not be able to travel abroad for vacations or for other non-governmental reasons," he explained.
The last top Kyiv officials to resign were two deputy ministers of the Ministry of Territory and Community Development, Viacheslav Negoda and Ivan Lukeria, who announced their decision on their respective Facebook pages.
In addition, Government Minister Oleh Nemchinov published on Telegram that five regional governors had been removed.
When he announced the reorganization of the administration, Zelenski specified that it would affect "various levels in the ministries and other structures of the central government, as well as in the regions and in the forces of order." So these resignations may not be the only ones.
Ukraínskaya Pravda, which forecast the changes, noted that there will also be resignations in the Ukrainian civil-military administrations of Sumi, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporiyia and Jershon provinces.
In 2021, Ukraine ranked 122 out of 180 in the NGO Transparency International's corruption perception index.
