Several senior Ukrainian officials announced their resignations on Tuesday, following an alleged corruption case related to the supply of the army at inflated prices, the first scandal and reshuffle of this magnitude since the beginning of the Russian invasion, France Presse reports, Agerpres reads.
Among the officials who resigned and whose departures were immediately accepted are Deputy Defense Minister Viacheslav Shapovalov, who was in charge of logistical support for the armed forces, Deputy Chief of the Presidential Administration Kirilo Tymoshenko and Deputy Prosecutor General Oleksi Simonenko.
„Even if these accusations are unfounded”, Shapovalov’s departure „will make it possible to preserve the trust of society and international partners, as well as ensure the objectivity” of efforts to shed light on this affair, the Ministry of Defense from Kyiv assured in a statement.
The announcements come after authorities fired a Ukrainian deputy infrastructure minister, Vassil Lozinski, on suspicion of accepting $400,000 in bribes to „facilitate” the purchase of generators at inflated prices as the country faces massive power outages following Russia’s strikes against the energy infrastructure.
Tymoshenko, one of the few collaborators of the president in office since the election of Volodymyr Zelensky in 2019 and who in particular oversaw projects to rebuild facilities damaged by Russian strikes, figured in his turn in several scandals during and before the invasion of Moscow.
In October, he was mostly accused of using an all-terrain vehicle donated to Ukraine by the General Motors group for humanitarian purposes. After these revelations, Tymoshenko announced the transfer of the vehicle to an area close to the front line.
Simonenko was in turn accused by an influential Ukrainian media outlet, Ukrainska Pravda, of having recently gone on holiday to Spain, while foreign travel, except for professional purposes, is normally prohibited for Ukrainian men drafted into the army in case of war.
According to the newspaper, he left in a car belonging to a Ukrainian businessman and in the company of his bodyguard.
President Zelensky announced on Monday evening that several responsible Ukrainian officials will leave their posts.
Agerpres
