Zelensky promises to swiftly confront Ukraine corruption
World
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that corruption would not be tolerated.
LVIV (Reuters) - Ukraine s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that corruption, the country s chronic problem cast into the background by the war against Russia, would not be tolerated and promised forthcoming key decisions on uprooting it this week.
Zelensky s pledge came amidst allegations of senior-level corruption, including a report of dubious practices in military procurement despite officials promoting national unity to confront the invasion.
"I want this to be clear: there will be no return to what used to be in the past, to the way various people close to state institutions or those who spent their entire lives chasing a chair used to live," Zelensky said in his nightly video address.
Ukraine has had a long history of rampant corruption and shaky governance, with Transparency International ranking the country s corruption at 122 of 180 countries, not much better than Russia in 2021.
The EU has made anti-corruption reforms one of its key requirements for Ukraine s membership after granting Kyiv the candidate status last year.
"This week will be the time for appropriate decisions," Zelensky said. "The decisions have already been prepared. I do not want to make them public at this time, but it will all be fair."
Elected by a landslide in 2019 on pledges to change the way the ex-Soviet state was governed, Zelensky said that his government had accepted the resignation of a deputy minister after an investigation into allegations he accepted a bribe.
He did not identify the official, but news reports have said an acting deputy minister of regional development, Vasyl Lozinskiy, was detained on allegations of accepting a bribe.
The renewed focus on corruption involved also Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov after a newspaper reported that the military had allegedly secured food at highly inflated prices.
Reznikov s ministry described the allegations as "false" and a parliamentary committee had been asked to investigate.
