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Ukraine Carries Out Anticorruption Raids Ahead of Visit From EU: Live Updates – The New York Times
- Ukraine Carries Out Anticorruption Raids Ahead of Visit From EU: Live Updates The New York Times
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Ukraine raids home of billionaire in war-time anti-corruption crackdown
KYIV, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Security services searched the home of one of Ukraine’s most prominent billionaires on Wednesday, moving against a figure once seen as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s sponsor in what the authorities called a war-time anti-corruption purge.
The action, days before a summit with the European Union, appears to reflect determination by Kyiv to demonstrate that it can be a steward of billions of dollars in Western aid and shed a reputation as one of the world’s most corrupt states.
It came as Kyiv has secured huge pledges of weapons from the West in recent weeks offering new capabilities – the latest expected this week to include rockets from the United States that would nearly double the firing range of Ukrainian forces.
Photographs circulating on social media appeared to show Ihor Kolomoiskiy dressed in a sweatsuit and looking on in the presence of an SBU security service officer at his home.
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The SBU said it had uncovered the embezzlement of more than $1 billion at Ukraine’s biggest oil company, Ukrnafta, and its biggest refiner, Ukrtatnafta. Kolomoiskiy, who has long denied wrongdoing, once held stakes in both firms, which Zelenskiy ordered seized by the state in November under martial law.
Separate raids were carried out at the tax office, and the home of Arsen Avakov, who led Ukraine’s police force as interior minister from 2014-2021. The SBU said it was cracking down on “people whose actions harm the security of the state in various spheres” and promised more details in coming days.
“Every criminal who has the audacity to harm Ukraine, especially in the conditions of war, must clearly understand that we will put handcuffs on his hands,” Ukraine’s security service chief Vasyl Malyuk was quoted as saying on the SBU Telegram channel.
The prosecutor general’s office said the top management of Ukrtatnafta had been notified it was under suspicion, as were a former energy minister, a former deputy defence minister and other officials.
Kolomoiskiy, who faces a fraud case in the United States, has been at the centre of corruption allegations and court disputes for years that Western donors have said must be resolved for Kyiv to win aid.
Zelenskiy, who first came to fame as the star of a sitcom on Kolomoiskiy’s TV station, has long promised to rid Ukraine of so-called oligarchs, but had faced accusations that he was unable to move decisively against his former sponsor.
In an address overnight before the raids, he alluded to new anti-corruption measures in time for Friday’s summit, at which Ukraine is expected to seek firm steps towards joining the EU.
“We are preparing new reforms in Ukraine. Reforms that will change the social, legal and political reality in many ways, making it more human, transparent and effective,” he said, promising to reveal the details soon.
LONGER RANGE MISSILES
Ukrainian forces which recaptured swathes of territory from Russian troops in the second half of 2022 have seen their advance stall since November. Kyiv says the key to regaining the initiative is securing advanced Western weaponry.
Two U.S. officials said a new $2 billion package of military aid to be announced as soon as this week would for the first time include Ground Launched Small Diameter Bombs (GLSDB), a new weapon designed by Boeing. (BA.N)
The cheap gliding missiles can strike targets more than 150 km (90 miles) away, a dramatic increase over the 80 km range of the rockets fired by HIMARS systems which changed the face of the war when Washington sent them last summer.
That would put all of the Russian-occupied territory on Ukraine’s mainland, as well as parts of the Crimea peninsula seized by Moscow in 2014, within range of Kyiv’s forces.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the arrival of longer range U.S. weapons would escalate the conflict.
Western countries pledged scores of advanced main battle tanks for the first time last week, a breakthrough in support aimed at giving Kyiv the capability to recapture occupied territory this year.
But the arrival of the new weapons is still months away, and in the meantime, Russia has gained momentum on the battlefield, announcing advances north and south of the city of Bakhmut, its main target for months.
Kyiv disputes many of those claims and Reuters could not independently verify the full situation, but the locations of reported fighting clearly indicate incremental Russian advances.
Troops were fighting building to building in Bakhmut for gains of barely 100 metres (yards) a night, and the city was coming under constant Russian shelling, a soldier in a Ukrainian unit of Belarusian volunteers told Reuters from inside the city.
Ukraine’s general staff said late on Tuesday its forces had come under fire in Bakhmut and the villages of Klishchiivka and Kurdyumivka on its southern approaches.
South of Bakhmut, Russia has also launched a major new offensive this week on Vuhledar, a longstanding Ukrainian-held bastion at the junction of the southern and eastern front lines. Kyiv says its forces have so far held there.
PURGE
The infusion of Western military and financial aid creates new pressure on Zelenskiy to demonstrate his government can clean up Ukraine.
Last week, he purged more than a dozen senior officials following a series of scandals and graft allegations in the biggest shakeup of Ukraine’s leadership since the invasion.
Following Wednesday’s raids, the parliamentary leader of Zelenskiy’s Servant of the People party, David Arakhamia, wrote on Telegram: “The country will change during the war. If someone is not ready for change, then the state itself will come and help them change.”
Reporting by Reuters bureaux
Writing by Peter Graff
Editing by Philippa Fletcher
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Zelenskiy ramps up anti-corruption drive as 15 Ukrainian officials exit | Ukraine
A number of Ukrainian officials have been dismissed or resigned over the last four days amid corruption allegations as Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, attempts to take a zero-tolerance approach to the issue.
Fifteen senior officials have left their posts since Saturday, six of whom have had corruption allegations levelled at them by journalists and Ukraine’s anti-corruption authorities.
The wave of changes started on Saturday when Ukraine’s deputy minister of infrastructure, Vasyl Lozinskyi, was detained by anti-corruption investigators and dismissed from his post. He was accused by prosecutors of inflating the price of winter equipment, including generators, and allegedly siphoning off $400,000. Investigators also found $38,000 in cash in his office.
After Lozinskyi’s detention, Zelenskiy vowed in his nightly address to take a zero-tolerance approach to corruption, a problem that has plagued Ukraine since independence.
“I want it to be clear: there will be no return to the way things used to be,” said the president.
Zelenskiy also said on Sunday that there would be “decisions” made on the issue of corruption this week, without specifying what they would be. The European Union has said Ukraine must meet anti-corruption standards before it can become a member.
Since Zelenskiy’s address, a further four senior officials implicated in separate corruption scandals have been dismissed or resigned.
They include Vyacheslav Shapovalov, the deputy minister of defence, under whose watch alleged inflated food contracts were said to be signed. He has not admitted to any wrongdoing. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, who was recorded by journalists driving a car belonging to prominent Ukrainian businessmen, has also denied any wrongdoing. Pavlo Halimon, the deputy head of Zelenskiy’s political party, has not commented on recent evidence presented by journalists that he bought a house in Kyiv above his means.
Also dismissed was Oleksiy Symonenko, the deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine, who went on holiday to Spain in late December in a Mercedes owned by a prominent Ukrainian businessman. In response to the scandal, Ukraine’s national security council on Monday banned officials from travelling abroad until the war ends, except for those on official business. Until Monday’s decisions, male officials were considered an exception to the ban on military-aged Ukrainian men leaving the country.
The shake-up continued on Tuesday afternoon with Ukraine’s cabinet of ministers announcing that five regional heads had been dismissed, only one of whom is being investigated for corruption, along with a further three deputy ministers and two heads of state agencies – none of whom stand accused of corruption.
The leading anti-corruption activist Vitaliy Shabunin said the dismissal of those accused of corruption is evidence that Ukraine’s newly formed anti-corruption system is working.
“Not only is the anti-corruption system working, but the politicians are learning to work in a new way,” said Shabunin. Shabunin gave the example of Lozinskyi, whose boss, Oleksiy Kubrakov, the minister of infrastructure, requested the cabinet of ministers dismiss him an hour after his detention and the search of his office.
Shabunin criticised Ukrainian defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov, however, for defending and not firing Shapovalov, his deputy minister in charge of logistics, when Ukraine’s ZN.UA publication published contracts on Saturday showing the price of some food for soldiers was several times higher than in a supermarket.
Shapovalov resigned on Tuesday in order, in his words, not to destabilise the Ukrainian army amid the accusations levied at the ministry.
Reznikov said the allegations were part of an information attack on the ministry and has ordered Ukraine’s security services to investigate who leaked the contracts.
Shabunin said the corruption scheme was “too primitive” for the public not to understand. According to the contracts obtained by journalists, a single egg cost 17 Ukrainian hryvnia (37p). The price of eggs, potatoes and cabbage are well-known in Ukraine, said Shabunin, who noted that wholesale prices should be lower than in the supermarket.
The ministry of defence has not denied the authenticity of the contract but insists the stated price was a technical error.
“The public have lost trust in Reznikov,” said Shabunin. “All (military) contracts are non-public because of the war and that is normal … but why should I now believe him that all the prices in the other contracts are OK? Everything is about trust.”
In a lengthy response on his Facebook page in English and Ukrainian, Reznikov did not deny the authenticity of the contracts. However, he said that the price of eggs was a technical error discovered in December and the person in charge at the ministry had been suspended when it was found. He also said he was willing to establish a parliamentary investigative committee as he was “confident (the ministry) had got it right”.
Corruption has been a thorny issue for Ukrainian journalists and activists since the war began. They worry that raising evidence of corruption could harm international support for their country’s war effort.
Shabunin said that, since the war, a silent contract has developed between activists and journalists and the authorities. “We will not criticise the authorities as we did before the war, but the authorities should in exchange very firmly and quickly react to any, even small-scale, corruption – as they did in the case of [Lozinskyi]. There, they fulfilled the social contract. But the ministry of defence has not.”
Shabunin added that the firing of Reznikov was the only way to reinstate confidence in Ukraine’s western partners.
The US is by far Ukraine’s biggest financial supporter. Its ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, said during a conference in Kyiv on Monday: “There can be no place in the future Ukraine for those who use state resources for their own enrichment. State resources should serve the people.”
Navalny anti-corruption group calls on Biden to sanction Putin allies
BERLIN, GERMANY – JANUARY 23: Protesters hold a banner reading “FREE NAVALNY” as some 2,500 supporters of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny march in protest to demand his release from prison in Moscow on January 23, 2021 in Berlin, Germany. The protesters marched from the federal chancellery through the Russian embassy to Brandenburg Gate in part also heeding a call by Navalny to protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Navalny, who was arrested earlier this week upon his return to Moscow from Germany, has called for protests against Putin across Russia, though Russian authorities have refused to allow them and deemed the protests illegal. Berlin is home to a large expatriate Russian community. (Photo by Omer Messinger/Getty Images)
Omer Messinger | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, in a letter addressed to President Joe Biden, is calling for the United States to impose sanctions on dozens of Russian oligarchs and government officials, whom it accuses of political persecution, human rights abuses and corruption.
Vladimir Ashkurov, who leads the Russian non-profit founded by Navalny, told reporters Saturday that he emailed the letter to key Biden administration officials including National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
The call for sanctions comes after tens of thousands of demonstrators participated in nationwide protests last weekend after Navalny was arrested as soon as he returned to Russia from Germany.
Navalny spent months recuperating in Berlin after he was poisoned by a nerve agent. The opposition leader blames President Vladimir Putin’s government for his poisoning.
“For years, Alexey Navalny has advocated sanctions against individuals who play key roles in aiding and abetting Putin and who take the lead in the persecution of those who seek to express their opinions freely and expose corruption in the system,” reads the letter.
“Existing sanctions don’t reach enough of the right people. The West must sanction the decisions makers who have made it national policy to rig elections, steal from the budget, and poison.”
The letter includes a list of 35 Putin associates including billionaire businessmen Roman Abramovich, Alisher Usmanov, Oleg Deripaska and Gennady Timchenko as well as numerous government ministers.
The United Kingdom and the European Union imposed sanctions on several Russian individuals in response to Navalny’s poisoning last year. The U.S. has not yet done the same, though members of Congress had called for former President Donald Trump to do so.
Biden called for Putin to release Navalny in a private phone call with the Russian president. The White House has also ordered the U.S. intelligence community to review alleged Kremlin involvement in Navalny’s poisoning.
“He did not hold back in conveying his concern about the treatment of Alexei Navalny and his treatment of protesters,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on Jan. 28.
In an unexpected Jan. 27 address from Putin at a virtual meeting of the World Economic Forum, the Russian president warned of an “all against all” fight if global tensions and the coronavirus pandemic are not resolved.