Several senior Ukrainian officials announced today that they are resigning as a result of a corruption scandal related to the supply of the army, in the first scandal of its scale since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
Among the officials who resigned are Deputy Minister of Defense Vyacheslav Shapovalov, who was in charge of logistical support for the armed forces, Assistant Chief of the Presidential Administration Kirill Tymoshenko and Assistant Prosecutor General Oleksiy Simonenko.
After those resignations, a series of others could begin, since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced last night that decisions related to personnel at various levels in ministries and other structures of the central government in the regions will be made.
Zelensky said that Ukraine's focus on war will not prevent his government from fighting corruption.
"I want to say clearly that there will be no going back to what happened in the past," Zelenski said in last night's address.
Although before the beginning of the Russian invasion, Ukraine was regularly rocked by corruption scandals, which is an endemic disease of the country, this is the first such affair since the beginning of the invasion at the end of February last year.
It broke out at a time when Kiev is asking its Western allies, whose military and financial support is crucial, for hundreds of modern tanks and other weapons for a new offensive on the front.
In a statement, the Ministry of Defense asserts that the accusations in the inflated prices scandal, which were revealed by the Ukrainian media, are "unfounded", but that Shapovalov's departure will allow "the trust of society and international partners to be preserved", as well as to ensure the "objectivity of efforts " to shed light on that case. Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said yesterday that the scandal was the result of an artificial information attack based on a "false pretext".
According to the information website ZN.UA, the Ministry of Defense has signed a contract for 2023 with increased prices for food products for the army. According to the portal, that contract is worth 13 billion grimni (about 324 million euros) with prices "two to three times increased" compared to current tariffs for basic food products.
The assistant to the head of the presidential administration Kirill Tymoshenko, one of the few associates of the president who has worked with him since the 2019 election and who oversaw the reconstruction projects of installations damaged in the Russian strikes, was mentioned in several scandals during and before the invasion.
In October, he was accused of using an all-terrain vehicle given to Ukraine by the American group General Motors for humanitarian purposes. After those revelations, he said that he transferred the vehicle for the needs of the front.
Assistant Prosecutor General Oleksiy Simonenko has been accused by an influential Ukrainian media outlet of recently going on vacation to Spain even though foreign travel outside of professional purposes is prohibited for men in Ukraine of military age.
Zelenski announced yesterday that government officials are prohibited from going abroad except for a professional mission.
Other firings preceded today's resignations in Ukraine, a country ranked 122nd out of 180 on Transparency International's 2021 Corruption Perceptions List.
On Sunday, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure Vasil Lozinski was arrested, accused of taking a $400.000 bribe to "facilitate" the purchase of generators at inflated prices, at a time when the country is facing major power outages due to Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.
Pavlo Galimon, assistant to the head of the president's "People's Clerk" party, was fired yesterday on charges of corruption related to the purchase of property in Kyiv for an amount greater than his declared income.
The fight against corruption is important for Ukraine if it wants to progress on the path to EU membership.
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