KYIV
A scandal linked to the procurement of war-time supplies prompted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to fire all officials in charge of regional military recruitment centres on Friday. This also led to the resignation of Ukraine’s deputy Defence Minister Viacheslav Shapovaloc as allegations of corruption began surfacing in the media. Zelenskyy announced the latest dismissals in a statement on Friday. “I have just held a meeting of the National Security and Defence Council,” he said in a video. “One key issue is the results of the inspection of military registration and enlistment offices,” Zelenskyy said following a meeting of the National Security and Defence Council.
“In total, there are 112 criminal proceedings against officials of the military registration and enlistment offices,” added Zelenskyy. Among the issues, the president cited “illicit enrichment, legalisation of illegally obtained funds, unlawful benefit, illegal transportation of persons liable for military service across the border.” He said the decision was to “dismiss all regional military commissioners.” “This system should be managed by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery in times of war are high treason,” he said.
He added that “soldiers who have been to the front or who cannot be in the trenches because they have lost their health, lost their limbs, but have saved their dignity and have no cynicism…They can be entrusted with this recruitment system.” “Every ‘military commissioner’ against whom there is a criminal investigation will be held accountable,” the president said. “Officials who confused their shoulder straps with profit will definitely be brought to justice.” The mass sacking came as Ukraine urged civilians near the northeastern front line to evacuate on Thursday as Russia ramped up an assault to capture territory already seized once during the conflict. “Some took cash, some took cryptocurrency — that’s the only difference…This system should be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery in times of war constitute treason.”
Zelenskyy said the move is aimed at eliminating military corruption and said he was immediately filling the positions with Ukrainian soldiers who have been taken off the battlefield after being wounded. The Ukrainian president is under pressure to root out and protect against corruption in Ukraine’s government to maintain support from the US and other allies who have provided and committed more than $165 billion in military, financial, and reconstruction support.