Ukraine’s Zelenskyy renews war on corruption amid scandals

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he will make changes to the government and security services as part of a renewed crackdown on corruption, nearly a year

since Russia invaded the country. In his nightly video address on Monday, Zelenskyy did not name the officials who would be replaced but indicated the reshuffle was

imminent. “There are already personnel decisions — some today, some tomorrow — regarding officials of various levels in ministries and other central government structures,

as well as in the regions and in the law enforcement system,” the president said. Zelenskyy was elected in a landslide in 2019 on promises to reform the government and

tackle corruption, which plagued the country long before Moscow sent its troops across the border on February 24 last year. Ukraine ranked 122 out of 180 countries in

Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index in 2021. Over the weekend, it emerged that the defence ministry had been buying food for soldiers at inflated

prices, raising questions about government procurement processes. On Sunday, anticorruption police said they had detained the deputy infrastructure minister on suspicion of

receiving a $400,000 kickback to facilitate the import of generators into wartime Ukraine last September. The deputy minister was also removed from his post. Ukrainian

media have reported that a number of cabinet ministers and senior officials could be sacked as Zelenskyy moves to streamline the government. One of the president’s top

allies earlier said corrupt officials would be “actively” jailed.