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Zelenskyy Office Probed for Corruption 08/19 06:23
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) -- Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies announced Wednesday
that they are investigating senior officials in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's
office, a day after the country's recently fired defense minister called for
national elections despite the ongoing fight against Russia's invasion.
The revelation brought another test of Zelenskyy's political resilience as
Ukraine's war with its bigger neighbor stretches into its fifth year.
Investigators are conducting an operation to expose a criminal organization
allegedly led by a sitting and a former lawmaker, involving senior officials
from the presidential office and other individuals, according to a joint
statement from Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized
Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.
Further details would be released later, the agencies said in a joint
statement.
Zelenskyy made no public comment on the investigation but issued a decree
dismissing Iryna Mudra from the position of deputy head of the Office of the
President.
Zelenskyy remains dogged by high-level graft investigations.
Last year, his chief of staff Andriy Yermak resigned and was later named as
a suspect in a major graft probe involving a luxury construction project in the
biggest threat to Zelenskyy's government since Russia's invasion in February
2022.
Also last year, a major embezzlement and kickbacks scandal involving the
state-owned nuclear power company brought the resignations of Ukraine's justice
and energy ministers.
The European Union has identified deep-seated corruption as one of the major
hurdles to Ukraine's desired membership in the bloc.
Zelenskyy's one-time loyal aide wants a wartime election
Zelenskyy is already under pressure over his firing last month of Defense
Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, one of the longest-standing members of his team and
a close ally since he helped Zelenskyy win the 2019 presidential election.
Zelenskyy, seeking to reconcile tensions between the defense ministry's
young and tech-savvy innovators and Ukraine's seasoned, Soviet-trained
battlefield leaders, risked angering both sides by reshuffling his wartime
leadership. He ousted both Fedorov, whose changes to military procurement aimed
to stamp out corruption, and commander-in-chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi.
That sparked days of street protests in support of Fedorov. For Zelenskyy,
it was the second time in a year that a wartime decision triggered a strong
public backlash, after he moved in mid-2025 to curb the powers of
anti-corruption agencies.
Fedorov, in a video address posted to YouTube late Tuesday, called for
elections to be held in Ukraine in a bombshell statement that appeared to
directly confront Zelenskyy, who says a ballot can't be held under the martial
law in place due to the war.
"We must find a legal, safe and realistic mechanism that will allow Ukraine
to restore a full democratic process even amid a prolonged war," Fedorov said.
He said Ukraine is facing a systemic crisis in how it is governed, arguing
that the current system is oriented toward protecting itself and resisting
change. He also condemned corruption among officials without naming anyone,
saying it had weakened Ukraine's ability to fight the war.
Zelenskyy's office did not immediately comment on Fedorov's address. It was
not immediately clear whether Fedorov's appeal for a ballot would resonate with
Ukrainians.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has balked at negotiating a peace deal
directly with Zelenskyy, asserts that the Ukrainian president is an
illegitimate leader because his term expired in 2024.
Ukraine's Parliament approved Zelenskyy's candidate, Yevhenii Khmara, as the
new defense minister in a vote Wednesday, a move that effectively closes the
door to Fedorov's return to the post, which he has sought, any time soon.
Lawmakers also gave their consent for Andrii Sybiha to stay on as foreign
minister after holding the post in an interim role.
Political noise comes after Ukrainian successes in the war
The political disarray comes after recent successes in the war for Ukraine.
Using its innovative drone technology, it has repeatedly hit Russian oil
facilities, causing fuel shortages. It has also shocked the Russian public by
striking warehouses of Wildberries, Russia's biggest online retailer, and
stalled front-line advances by Russia's bigger army.
But Zelenskyy has been unable to get traction in U.S.-led peace efforts, and
Ukraine is at the mercy of Russia's ballistic missiles because more U.S.-made
Patriot interceptors aren't available due to low international stockpiles.
In its latest strike on oil facilities, a drone hit an oil refinery in Ufa
in Russia's Bashkortostan, its Gov. Radiy Khabirov was quoted as saying by
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
The city of Ufa is located roughly 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) east of the
border with Ukraine. There are three oil refineries in Ufa, and all three have
been attacked before.
Russian air defenses overnight intercepted 453 Ukrainian drones over
multiple Russian regions, as well as occupied Crimea and the Black Sea, the
Defense Ministry in Moscow said Wednesday.
The Defense Ministry said Russian forces on Tuesday evening hit a bulk
carrier in the Black Sea, southeast of Odesa, that was carrying military
equipment. On Wednesday, the Russian military struck what it said were fuel and
lubricant storage tanks for the Ukrainian armed forces in the southern port of
Chornomorsk.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, a Russian drone attacked a minibus in the southern
Kherson region on Wednesday morning, killing four people, said Oleksandr
Prokudin, head of the Kherson regional military administration. Four women were
also wounded in the strike and were hospitalized, he said.
Also, a Russian drone struck a civilian car in Kherson city, the region's
capital, on Wednesday, killing a woman, Prokudin said.
Amid the fighting, Russia and Ukraine each sent home 103 prisoners of war
Wednesday, according to Zelenskyy and the Russian Defense Ministry.
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