Several senior Ukrainian officials, including front-line governors, were fired Tuesday because of a corruption scandal plaguing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government as it deals with Russia’s nearly 11-month invasion.

Ukraine’s biggest government reshuffle since the war began came as US officials said Washington was ready to approve supplying Kyiv with M1 Abrams tanks, with international opposition to sending tanks to the battlefront against the Russians eroding.

In a country long gripped by graft, Zelenskyy was elected in 2019 on an anti-establishment and anti-corruption platform, and the new allegations come as Western allies channel billions of dollars to help Kyiv fight Moscow.

Given Ukraine’s rampant corruption, officials in several countries, including the United States, have demanded greater accountability for the aid. While Zelenskyy and his aides portray the resignations and firings as evidence of their efforts to crack down, the wartime scandal may factor into Moscow’s political attacks on Kyiv’s leadership.

Serhii Bochkarev, a 28-year-old translator, welcomed the changes on the capital’s streets.

“Corruption during the war is completely unacceptable because people are dying to fight Russians and defend the motherland,” he said.

The upheaval even reached Zelenskyy’s office. Its deputy head, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, known for his frequent battlefield updates, resigned as the president promised to address graft allegations, including some involving military spending, that had embarrassed authorities and could stymie Ukraine’s efforts to join the European Union and NATO.

Tymoshenko requested that he be relieved of his responsibilities. He didn’t explain.

 

Ukraine Deputy Defense Minister Resigns

According to local media, Deputy Defense Minister Viacheslav Shapovalov resigned in connection with a food procurement scandal for Ukraine’s armed forces. Oleksiy Symonenko, Deputy Prosecutor General, also resigned.

The country’s cabinet secretary announced the departure of four deputy ministers and five governors of front-line provinces on the Telegram messaging app.

Authorities made no criminal charges public. There was no obvious explanation.

The departures trimmed government ranks that had already been thinned by the deaths in a helicopter crash last week of the interior minister, who oversaw Ukraine’s police and emergency services, and others in the ministry’s leadership.

Tymoshenko was appointed president in 2019 after working on Zelenskyy’s media strategy during his campaign. He was being investigated for his personal use of luxury cars and was one of the officials linked in September to the embezzlement of more than $7 million in humanitarian aid earmarked for the southern Zaporizhzhia region. He has denied the charges.

The Deputy Infrastructure Minister Fired

Vasyl Lozynsky, a deputy infrastructure minister, was fired on Sunday for allegedly participating in a network embezzling budget funds.

According to Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, he was detained by Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency while receiving a $400,000 bribe for assisting in the repair of facilities damaged by Russian missile strikes. He was placed under house arrest, ordered to surrender his passport, required to wear a monitoring device, and instructed not to communicate with witnesses.

“Any internal problems that hinder the state are being cleaned up and will be cleaned up,” Zelenskyy said in a video address Tuesday. It is just, it is necessary for our defense, and it aids our reconciliation with European institutions.”

According to analysts, his message was that corruption would not be tolerated.

“It’s very difficult to save the country when there’s a lot of corruption,” said Andrii Borovyk, executive director of Transparency International Ukraine, a nonprofit organization that fights corruption.

According to Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko, the reshuffle was “intended to remind officials across the entire (power) vertical that the authorities intend to continue fighting corruption in Ukraine, especially during the war, when everything in the country is in short supply.”

According to Fesenko, the head of the independent think tank Penta Center in Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities and Western officials cannot “turn a blind eye to the latest scandals.” According to him, the corruption involved army supplies, so the shake-up was “intended to calm Western partners and demonstrate to Brussels and Washington that their aid is being used effectively.”

Corruption in Ukraine

Transparency International ranked Ukraine 122 out of 180 countries in its 2021 report on global corruption, with 180 being the most corrupt. Russia came in at 136th place.

Due to entrenched corruption, foreign investors and governments have long been wary of doing business with Ukraine. According to a U.S. State Department 2020 country report, allegations of corruption at high levels of government, in courts, and business have persisted under Zelenskyy, despite a proliferation of anti-corruption panels and measures.

A major corruption scandal could jeopardize the tens of billions of dollars the United States and its allies are pouring into Ukraine to keep fighters armed, civil servants paid, and the lights on. It may jeopardize the United States’ bipartisan popular and political support for Ukraine.

“We applaud President Zelenskyy’s prompt action in this case, as well as the effective action of Ukraine’s anti-corruption institutions, civil society, and media in ensuring effective monitoring and accountability of public procurement and holding those in positions of public trust accountable,” the White House National Security Council said in a statement.

Last June, the EU agreed to put Ukraine on the path to EU membership. Countries must meet economic and political criteria, including adherence to the rule of law and other democratic principles, to join.

Ukraine has also applied for membership in NATO, but the military alliance is unlikely to extend an invitation due to the country’s contested borders, defense establishment shortcomings, and, in part, corruption issues.

Meanwhile, in a surprising turn of events, US officials said the Biden administration plans to send M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. The decision could be announced as soon as Wednesday, though the tanks could take months or years to arrive.

German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine

According to one official, the US announcement will be coordinated with Germany’s announcement that it will approve Poland’s request to transfer German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. Because the decision has not yet been made public, the officials spoke on the condition of anonymity.

German officials refused to comment on the reported agreement. Without citing a source, the Newsweek Der Spiegel reported on Tuesday that Germany would provide Ukraine with at least one company of Leopard 2 tanks from its own army’s stock.

In his video address on Tuesday, Zelenskyy expressed concern that the number of tanks to be sent would be insufficient. “It’s not about five, ten, or fifteen tanks. “There is a greater need,” he stated.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is scheduled to address lawmakers on Wednesday, many of whom have urged the government to join allies in providing the tanks.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Tuesday that the Poles and other Western allies he did not name are already training Ukrainian soldiers on the Leopards in Poland.

Also on Tuesday, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto suggested that if Turkey blocks their joint bid to join NATO, Finland may consider joining without neighboring Sweden. Although he later retracted his remarks, he was the first senior official in either Nordic country to express reservations about joining NATO at a time when the alliance attempted to present a united front in response to Russia’s invasion.

Following Moscow’s invasion, Sweden and Finland rushed to join NATO, abandoning their long-standing nonalignment policy. Their membership in NATO requires the approval of all NATO members, including Turkey, which has vetoed the expansion, claiming that Sweden must crack down on exiled Kurdish militants and their sympathizers. Several top Ukrainian officials have been implicated in a corruption scandal.

Source: AP