Ukraine has been shaken by a wave of corruption scandals in recent days. Zelensky’s deputy chief of staff, six deputy ministers and five regional governors all left their posts today after a string of controversies left their positions untenable. Some were fired by the President, others left of their own accord – the number may yet grow.
The first scandal broke on Sunday after Vasyl Lozynsky, Ukraine’s deputy minister of infrastructure, was accused of receiving a bribe worth £285,000 to procure generators at an inflated price for the government’s war relief efforts. Then Oleksiy Symonenko, a deputy prosecutor general, was caught holidaying in Spain despite Zelensky’s restriction on fighting-age men leaving the country. The last straw was a report by the Ukrainian journalist Yurii Nikolov that claimed the Ministry of Defence had been purchasing food for servicemen at a cost two to three times higher than that in Kyiv stores.
Today’s flurry of resignations is a good sign and a clear signal that no politician is untouchable
This news has outraged Ukrainians, who have generously donated money, often well beyond their means, to buy drones and vehicles for the army. Meanwhile it seems their politicians have been taking advantage of wartime conditions to enrich themselves.
Public demand for justice has prompted Zelensky to ban state officials from leaving the country for non-governmental purposes. ‘If they want to rest now, they will rest outside the civil service’, he said. Ukraine’s anti-corruption bureau has detained Lozynsky and is investigating alleged abuses by the Ministry of Defence in the procurement of food for the military. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the President’s deputy head of office, also resigned today – in December, investigative journalists accused him of appropriating a car sent to Ukraine to evacuate citizens from combat zones for his personal use. Indeed, none of these scandals would have come to light without the work of Ukrainian investigative journalists.
Zelensky promised that this week would be a time for ‘appropriate decisions’ – the time for changes in the government has come. ‘The main focus is on defence, foreign policy, and war, but this does not mean that I do not see or hear what is being said in society at different levels’, he said in his video address to the nation.
The EU has welcomed the fact that the Ukrainian authorities are taking corruption charges against high-ranking officials seriously. One European Commission representative, Ana Pisonero, stressed that anti-corruption measures are a key part of the EU accession process and ‘one of the conditions for providing macro-financial assistance to Ukraine’. Although most of this week’s dismissals happened as soon as the news of each controversy broke, corruption scandals of such a scale nevertheless risk undermining the trust of Ukraine’s allies.
Ukraine has spent years fighting its reputation as a corrupt country. There is still a long way to go. Russia’s full-scale invasion last year shifted public attention away from politics but in recent months Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies have become noticeably more active. In part, this is also a consequence of criticism and advice from Ukraine’s Western partners to go further, but also indicates a clear shift in attitude from the government.
The only way for Kyiv to win the war with Russia is to win internal battles too. Today’s flurry of resignations is a good sign that the system is finally changing and a clear signal that no politician is untouchable.
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