Top Ukrainian officials resigned in an effort to fight corruption

• The deputy defense minister, and the deputy attorney general all departed their positions.
• Zelensky has hinted that additional top officials may be leaving soon.
• The anti-corruption campaign comes in response to media revelations.

In the midst of a personnel reorganization throughout President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government, a number of senior Ukrainian officials have resigned.

On Tuesday, a significant presidential advisor, the deputy defense minister, and the deputy attorney general all departed their positions.

As part of his effort to combat corruption, Mr. Zelensky has hinted that additional top officials may be leaving soon.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, one of the officials, was involved in problems due to his usage of pricey vehicles.

According to top advisor Mykhailo Podolyak, Mr. Zelensky was responding to an “important public demand” that justice be applied equally to everybody.

The anti-corruption campaign comes in response to media revelations that the Ukrainian defense ministry overpaid for food supplies from a small, unproven company. On Monday, another minister was detained on suspicion of bribery.

Top government officials are already prohibited by Mr. Zelensky from leaving the nation unless on legitimate state business.

Mr. Tymoshenko, who managed regional strategy and had previously worked on Mr. Zelensky’s election campaign, was the first to resign on Tuesday.

He has become a frequent government spokesperson ever since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February of last year. He praised Mr. Zelensky for giving him “the opportunity to conduct good things every day and every minute” in a Telegram post.

Following allegations that he managed the contentious agreement for the military’s food supplies, Vyacheslav Shopalov, the deputy minister of defense, also announced his resignation. The department claimed that this was a “technical error” and that no money had been exchanged.

Oleksii Reznikov, the defense minister, has also come under fire for the same reason.

Additionally, according to his office, Oleskiy Symonenko, the deputy prosecutor general, was fired “according to his own wish.”

Transparency International placed Ukraine 122 out of 180 nations in its rating of corrupt states in 2021 despite the fact that the country has a long history of corruption. If the nation wants to move forward with its bid to join the club, a crackdown is one of the main requests from the EU.

There would be “no return to what used to be in the past, to the way various persons close to state institutions” used to live, Mr. Zelensky promised in a speech on Sunday.

His remarks came after Vasyl Lozinskyi, Ukraine’s deputy minister of infrastructure, was detained on Saturday on suspicion of receiving a bribe totaling more than $350,000 (£285,000) in connection with the provision of electrical generators. He has refuted the accusations.

The leader of Mr. Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, David Arakhamia, has promised that corrupt officials risk going to prison.

“Officials at all levels have been constantly warned through official and unofficial channels: focus on the war, help the victims, reduce bureaucracy and stop doing dubious business. Many of them have actually listened, but some, unfortunately, did not,” he said in a Telegram statement.

“It will be carried out in accordance with the laws of war if it cannot be done in a humane manner. This is true for both recent generator purchases and brand-new problems at the Ministry of Defense.”

According to a report in the Ukrainian newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, Mr. Tymoshenko may be followed by the leaders of Sumy, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson due to their connections to the resigned presidential adviser.

Despite recent anti-corruption legislation, Kyiv is at risk since the city is receiving billions of dollars in financial support from Western friends.

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