Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky announced on Friday the dismissal of all regional officials in charge of recruitment military to eradicate a system of corruption that allows, in particular, conscripts to evade the army.
“Illegal enrichment, legalization of illegally obtained funds, ill-gotten gains, illegal transport of recruits across the border. Our solution: we remove all military commissars,” announced on Telegram Zelenski, after an anti-corruption investigation.
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File photo of Ukrainian serviceman
The president reported that 112 criminal investigations were launched following an inspection carried out, among others, by the anti-corruption bodies of Ukraine, the security services (SBU) and the prosecutor’s office.
“There are abuses in several regions. Donetsk, Poltava, Vinnitsia, Odessa, kyiv,” he denounced, asking his commander in chief, Valeri Zaluzhi, to replace those dismissed by veterans of the war unleashed by Russia.
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“This system must be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and wartime bribery are high treason,” he added.
According to Zelensky, military recruitment must be organized by “soldiers who passed through the front or who They can no longer be in the trenches because they are not in good health or they are mutilated.”
The president vowed to punish those corruptly responsible and asked others to “go to the front” if they want to “keep their stripes and demonstrate their dignity.”
In July, the Ukrainian authorities announced that they had remanded a former military recruiter in custody. on suspicion that he spent 4 million euros to buy a luxury villa in Spain during the Russian invasion.
The fight against corruption, an endemic evil in Ukraine, is one of the conditions for the European Union to maintain its candidacy to form part of the bloc.
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In two notorious cases, in May, the president of the Supreme Court was arrested in a corruption case, and in January, a scandal of irregularities in the provisioning of the army it provoked a cascade of resignations in ministries, regional administrations and the judicial apparatus.
AFP
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