Zelensky Ramps Up Fight Against Corruption

"Ukrainian authorities launched criminal cases against six former Defense Ministry officials and raided the home of a former billionaire political backer of President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, amid a flurry of attempts by Mr. Zelensky to show Western governments that he is serious about an anticorruption drive.

With billions of dollars in aid flowing into Ukraine monthly, Mr. Zelensky is under pressure from Western backers to take a firm stance against endemic Ukrainian corruption. He also faces calls from ordinary Ukrainians to uproot corruption for good.

Chief prosecutor Andriy Kostin said his office formally notified six former top officials at the ministry of defense and other institutions of the cases. The accusations range from misuse of funds to embezzling and accepting bribes. Ukrainian security services also raided the home of a former interior minister and accused the head of the Kyiv tax service of fraud.

The raids on the homes of the former minister, Arsen Avakov, and the billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky come amid a push to uproot graft.

Senior Defense Ministry officials were removed from their posts last week amid accusations that the ministry paid inflated prices for food for the military.

Mr. Zelensky thanked law enforcement. "The movement towards justice is tangible," he said.

Mr. Kolomoisky, 59 years old, owns a television station that vaulted Mr. Zelensky into stardom and backed his successful presidential run in 2019.

Ukraine's security service said it found evidence of massive misappropriation of funds at a state-owned oil company, Ukrnafta, once controlled by Mr. Kolomoisky, that investigators have raided in previous years.

Ukrnafta didn't respond to a request to comment on the charges. Mr. Kolomoisky didn't respond to requests to comment.

Mr. Avakov, whose home also was searched on Wednesday, wielded enormous power as Ukraine's interior minister, a post he served in for seven years until 2021. He has come under scrutiny in recent weeks after his successor died in a helicopter crash on the outskirts of Kyiv in January.

In a social-media posting on Wednesday, Mr. Avakov said investigators were interested in contracts for the 2018 purchase of Airbus H225 Super Puma helicopters. The contracts, he wrote, were between the French and Ukrainian governments. He declined to comment further.

Mr. Zelensky faces pressure to battle corruption in the state and private sector to ensure the continued flow Western funds and weapons and to ensure his political survival.

"It's an effort also for the West to commit funds to Ukraine and they want to make sure that it's clean and spent for the purpose," said Orysia Lutsevych, a research fellow and manager of the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House in London. "It's important that the Ukrainian system proves that it can actually fight corruption."" [1]

We, Eastern Europeans, know that these shows of fighting corruption between us are as laughable as any comedy shows performed by Mr. Zelensky.

1. World News: Zelensky Ramps Up Fight Against Corruption
Malsin, Jared; Cullison, Alan.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 02 Feb 2023: A.7.