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Top Ukraine officials resign after Zelensky announced crackdown on corruption
- The deputy head of the presidential office Kyrylo Tymoshenko resigns
- Deputy Defense Minister Viacheslav Shapovalov also resigned from the government.
Top Ukrainian officials have resigned after Volodymyr Zelensky announced a crackdown on corruption and vowed to launch a top-level staff reshuffle.
The deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, has asked to be relieved of his duties, according to an online copy of a decree signed by Zelensky and Tymoshenko’s own social media posts.
Neither gave a reason for the resignation.
Deputy Defense Minister Viacheslav Shapovalov also resigned, local media reported, claiming his departure was linked to a scandal involving the purchase of food for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The deputy head of the presidential office of Ukraine, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, asked to be relieved of his duties (shows his resignation note)
Deputy Prosecutor General Oleksiy Symonenko also resigned.
Tymoshenko joined the presidential office in 2019, after working on Zelensky’s media and creative content strategy during his presidential campaign.
Zelensky had promised personnel changes in the government, regional administrations and security forces following corruption allegations that surfaced after the invasion of Russia last February.
Tymoshenko last year was under investigation in connection with his personal use of luxury cars. He was also among the officials linked last September to the embezzlement of more than $7 million worth of humanitarian aid destined for the southern region of Zaporizhzhia.
He has denied all the accusations.
Zelensky vowed to oust the corrupt officials in comments on Sunday, when a deputy minister was sacked for being part of a network to embezzle budget funds. Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry later identified the fired official as Vasyl Lozynsky, a deputy minister there.
In his late-night video address, Zelensky said Ukraine’s focus on the war would not prevent his government from tackling corruption.
Zelensky, who came to power in 2019 on an anti-establishment, anti-corruption platform, flagged suspicions in the areas of energy and military procurement.
Zelensky had promised personnel changes in the government, regional administrations and security forces.
He said that the dismissal of the deputy minister was intended to send “a signal to all those whose actions or conduct violate the principle of justice.”
“I want to be clear: there will be no going back to what used to be in the past,” Zelensky said.
Oleksandr Kubrakov, the infrastructure minister, said Lozynsky was relieved of his duties after Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency detained him while receiving a $400,000 bribe for helping arrange contracts related to restoring infrastructure facilities hit by hacking attacks. Russian missiles.
A statement from Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Office described Lozynsky as part of “an organized criminal group involved in the embezzlement of budget funds.”
He said his detectives were working to identify the other members of the group.
In other developments:
Russian shelling overnight killed one civilian and wounded two others near the eastern city of Bakhmut, the epicenter of fighting in recent months, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Tuesday.
Russian forces also shelled nine towns and villages in the northern Sumy region, which borders Russia, killing a young woman and wounding three others, local governor Dmytro Zhyvytskyy reported on Telegram.
He said that all the wounded lived in the same house, which suffered a direct artillery hit.