(UnitedVoice.com) – The Ukrainian government has been cracking down on corruption for months. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stressed the importance of having officials that support the nation, particularly in a time of war. Recent allegations have led to some resigning or being ousted.
Ten senior #Ukraine officials resign in #Kiev corruption scandal. https://t.co/Yn8VmzVeQn pic.twitter.com/r8L5v1PX5D
— tim anderson (@timand2037) January 24, 2023
On Tuesday, January 24, a number of Ukrainian officials stepped down after corruption claims surfaced. Zelenskyy accepted the resignation of Kyrylo Tymoshenko as the deputy head of the president’s office. In a post on Telegram, the former official thanked the Ukrainian leader for his “trust and opportunity to do good deeds” for his country “every day and every minute.” Tymoshenko recently came under fire in the Ukrainian media after being spotted driving sports cars.
In addition to Tymoshenko, several others resigned from their posts:
- the governors of Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Sumy, and Kherson
- Oleksiy Symonenko, the deputy prosecutor general
- Vyacheslav Negoda, the deputy minister for Development of Communities and Territories
- Ivan Lukerya, the deputy minister for Development of Communities and Territories
- Vitaliy Muzychenko, deputy minister for Social Policy
Deputy Defence Minister Vyacheslav Shapovalov also tendered his resignation after reports indicated he purchased military food at an inflated price from a firm that was unknown by the government.
Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov was also caught up in that scandal, but he did not leave his post. Ukrinform published a statement from the ministry claiming the accusations against Shapovalov were “unfounded and groundless” but said his resignation was “a worthy act in the tradition of European and democratic politics.”
The deputy prosecutor general, Oleksiy Symonenko’s, resignation was the result of a scandal regarding a foreign trip he took to Spain in December. He also allegedly used a Mercedes owned by a Ukrainian businessman, Grigory Kozlovsky.
On January 23, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council prohibited all of the country’s top officials from taking any more trips abroad that are not connected to their work with the government.
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