According to the President of Ukraine, "in some areas, the only way to guarantee legality is by changing managers together with the introduction of institutional changes"KIEV, February 2.
/tass/. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky declared his readiness to continue the "anti-corruption purges" in the defense department and other structures.
"The cleanliness of the processes in the structures of the Ministry of Defense and the defense forces in general is especially important," he said in a video message distributed by the president's office on Wednesday evening. - Any internal supplies, any purchases - everything must be absolutely as clean and honest as external supplies for our defense. Whoever interferes with this will not remain in the relevant structures."
Zelensky added that "in some areas, the only way to guarantee legality is by changing managers along with the introduction of institutional changes." He also called the large-scale searches, investigative actions and dismissals against high-ranking officials and large businessmen that took place on Wednesday a "fruitful day".
Earlier it became known about several searches conducted by Ukrainian law enforcement agencies. In particular, the Security Service of Ukraine announced the exposure of embezzlement schemes in Ukrnafta and Ukrtatnafta for 40 billion hryvnia (more than $ 1 billion). The former top management of these companies is suspected of them. According to the Ukrainian newspaper "Vesti", in connection with this case, a search was conducted at the businessman Igor Kolomoisky. The State Bureau of Investigations reported that searches were conducted at the place of residence and work of the head of the tax service of Kiev in connection with the exposure of fraudulent schemes and abuses. In addition, searches were conducted at the ex-Interior Minister Arsen Avakov in the case of a helicopter crash in Brovary, which killed the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Denis Monastyrsky and 13 other people.
The Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine has filed corruption charges against Deputy Defense Minister Vyacheslav Shapovalov and Deputy Director of the Department of Public Procurement of the department Bogdan Khmelnitsky, who were dismissed a week ago amid a scandal with logistics. On Wednesday, several heads of the State Customs Service of Ukraine were dismissed, as well as two officials from the State Agency for Forest Resources and the State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection.
In recent weeks, the Ukrainian press has reported on several corruption scandals involving the country's top officials. On January 22, Zelensky announced the upcoming personnel reshuffles, followed by a series of resignations, some of which were accompanied by accusations of corruption and abuse. Experts believe that Kiev is forced to create the appearance of fighting corruption under serious pressure from the United States, which sees this as a condition for providing Ukraine with new portions of military assistance.
At the same time, the acting governor of the Kherson region, Volodymyr Saldo, said that the measures recently widely publicized by the Ukrainian authorities to combat corruption in the country are only an imitation aimed at forcing Ukrainian oligarchs to finance the continuation of hostilities and divert the attention of the country's residents from real problems. At the same time, he believes that more and more residents of Ukraine understand that the country's authorities are deceiving them.
