To combat this failure, which is recurring in Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky is taking a radical decision. The President of Ukraine announced on Friday the dismissal of all regional officials responsible for conscription. Its goal is to eradicate the system of corruption that allows, among other things, conscripts to flee the army.
“Illegal enrichment, legalization of illegally obtained funds, illegal profits, illegal transportation of conscripts across the border. Our decision: we are firing all military commissars,” Zelensky said on Telegram after an anti-corruption investigation. The President said that after an audit conducted by the Ukrainian anti-corruption authorities, the security services (SBU) and the prosecutor’s office, 112 criminal cases were initiated.
“Cynicism and corruption is treason”
“There are abuses in different regions. Donetsk, Poltava, Vinnitsa, Odessa, Kyiv,” he denounced, asking his commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny to replace the sacked officials with veterans of the war started by Russia. “The system should be run by people who know that cynicism and corruption is a betrayal during a war,” the president said.
According to him, conscription should be organized by “military personnel who have passed the front or who can no longer be in the trenches due to loss of health or limbs.” He promised to punish officials guilty of corruption and urged others to “go to the front” if they want to “keep their epaulettes and prove their dignity.”
Endemic phenomenon in Ukraine
At the end of July, Ukrainian authorities announced the arrest of a former army commissar responsible, among other things, for mobilization, suspected of buying a villa in Spain for about 4 million euros during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The fight against corruption, the ubiquitous evil of Ukraine, which even before the Russian invasion was one of the poorest countries in Europe, is one of the conditions set by the European Union for maintaining the status of a candidate from Kyiv.
Since the beginning of the year, the anti-corruption authorities of the country have identified two high-profile cases. In May, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was arrested and imprisoned in a $2.7 million (€2.5 million) corruption case. In January, the army supply case triggered a flurry of resignations in ministries, regions and the country’s judiciary.
Source: Le Parisien
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
