Zelenskiy Removes Military Recruitment Heads Amid Frontline Bribe Scandal
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has announced the dismissal of all the heads of Ukraine’s regional military recruitment centres in the latest drive to root out corruption after officials were accused of taking bribes from those seeking to avoid the frontlines.
At a time when the country’s army was desperate for new recruits, Ukraine’s president called for accepting money from people who wanted to avoid conscription while others suffered treason.
“This system should be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery during the war are treason,” he said in a video statement.
“Instead, soldiers who have experienced the front or who cannot be in the trenches because they have lost their health, lost their limbs, but have preserved their dignity and do not have cynicism, are the ones who can be entrusted with this system of recruitment.”
Zelenskiy’s Anti-Corruption Efforts
In recent months, Zelenskiy, who was elected in 2019 on the promise that he would eradicate the country’s pervasive corruption, has sought to personally and publicly oppose such practices.
In January, he fired a minister accused of embezzlement, Vasyl Lozynsky, and some of his closest associates left the government.
Last week, he also condemned the “revolting practices” of some military recruiters after an official in Odesa’s southern region was discovered to have amassed $5 million in savings and a property in Spain.
There are 112 criminal proceedings pending against officials of military enlistment offices. According to Zelenskiy, there was evidence that “some took cash, some took cryptocurrency.”
“The cynicism is the same everywhere,” he said. “Illicit enrichment, legalisation of illegally obtained funds, unlawful benefit, illegal transfer of persons liable for military service across the border.”
Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, has been directed by Zelenskiy to appoint new heads of territorial recruitment centres, with applicants subject to security service checks.
“Every ‘military commissar’ who is subject to criminal proceedings will be held accountable,” Zelenskiy said. “It is quite fair. Full responsibility.
The dismissed ‘military commissars’ and other officials who have shoulder straps and in respect of whom no evidence of crimes or violations has been found, if they want to keep their shoulder straps and prove their worthiness, should go to the front.”
Zelenskiy made no mention of another case of alleged corruption in the Ukrainian media involving the Ministry of Defence.
According to documents obtained by the investigative news website ZN.ua, the defence ministry overpaid for summer camouflage purchased from Turkey as winter coats for the military.
The 4,900 jackets that were supposed to cost $142,000 were purchased for $420,000. The difference between the two prices was retained by the Turkish company that supplied the goods, owned by a Ukrainian from the city of Zaporizhia in the south.
The Department of Defence has not responded to the allegations.
In June, Ukraine’s security services launched an investigation into Vyacheslav Shapovalov, a former deputy minister of defence, and Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, a former head of the Department of State Procurement in the defence ministry, regarding the importation of low-quality winter clothing.
Shapoval and Khmelynytskyi have denied responsibility for any wrongdoing.
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Source: The Guardian
