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Tag: President Volodymir Zelensky

  • Zelensky dismisses military recruitment officials in response to frontline bribery scandal

    Zelensky dismisses military recruitment officials in response to frontline bribery scandal

    In the most recent effort to combat corruption, Volodymyr Zelensky has ordered the removal of all the directors of Ukraine’s regional military recruitment centers after officials were suspected of accepting bribes from people looking to avoid the front lines.

    The president of Ukraine called it “treason” to take money from those who sought to dodge conscription at a time when the army of the nation desperately needs new soldiers.

    “This system should be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery during war is treason,” he said in a video statement. “Instead, soldiers who have experienced the front or who cannot be in the trenches because they have lost their health, lost their limbs, but have preserved their dignity and do not have cynicism, are the ones who can be entrusted with this system of recruitment.”

    Zelenskiy, who secured victory in the 2019 elections with a commitment to eradicate the deeply ingrained corruption within the nation, has recently taken personal and very public measures to confront these behaviors.

    In January, he removed a minister named Vasyl Lozynsky from his position due to allegations of embezzlement. Additionally, certain individuals within his inner circle chose to exit the government.

    Just last week, he strongly condemned the “appalling actions” of certain individuals involved in military recruitment. This followed the discovery of an official in the southern region of Odesa who had inexplicably amassed $5 million in savings and purchased property in Spain.

    Presently, there are a total of 112 ongoing criminal cases targeting officials within military enlistment offices. Zelenskiy pointed out that there is evidence suggesting that “some received cash payments, while others received cryptocurrency.”

    “The cynicism is the same everywhere,” he said. “Illicit enrichment, legalisation of illegally obtained funds, unlawful benefit, illegal transfer of persons liable for military service across the border.”

    Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, has been ordered by Zelenskiy to hire new heads of the territorial recruitment centres, with applicants facing checks from the security service.

    “Every ‘military commissar’ who is subject to criminal proceedings will be held accountable,” Zelenskiy said. “It is quite fair. Full responsibility. The dismissed ‘military commissars’ and other officials who have shoulder straps and in respect of whom no evidence of crimes or violations has been found, if they want to keep their shoulder straps and prove their worthiness should go to the front.”

    Zelenskiy did not address another reported case of alleged corruption highlighted by the Ukrainian media, this time involving the Ministry of Defence.

    According to documentation reviewed by the investigative news website ZN.ua, the Ministry of Defence purportedly made excessive payments for summer camouflage gear from Turkey, which were then presented as winter coats for the soldiers.

    Based on documents reportedly obtained by ZN.ua, a batch of 4,900 jackets that should have logically amounted to $142,000 were astonishingly procured for $421,000.

    The report alleges that the surplus money was retained by the Turkish company that provided the goods, and interestingly, the company is owned by a Ukrainian hailing from the southern city of Zaporizhzhia.

    As of now, the Ministry of Defence has not issued any response to these allegations.

    Back in June, Ukrainian security services initiated an investigation into Vyacheslav Shapovalov, a former deputy minister of defence, and Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, a previous head of the state procurement department within the defence ministry. This investigation revolved around the procurement of substandard winter attire from foreign sources. It remains unclear whether these two cases are interlinked. Both Shapovalov and Khmelnytskyi have adamantly denied any misconduct.

    These corruption scandals have surfaced at a time when Ukrainian armed forces are facing mounting pressure due to a Russian offensive in the eastern Kharkiv region, located in the northeast of the country.

    The Russian defence ministry reported on Telegram that, in addition to other clashes, 20 Ukrainian soldiers were tragically lost in attacks within the Kherson oblast in the southern region.

    Tragedy also struck on a civilian level, with an eight-year-old losing their life as a result of a Russian missile striking a residence in western Ukraine’s Ivano-Frankivsk region, approximately 60 miles from the Polish border. Ukrainian officials further stated that a woman and a 44-year-old man fell victim to a drone strike in the city of Beryslav within the Kherson oblast.

    In the city of Kherson, a high-rise building was hit by artillery fire earlier that Friday, resulting in the death of a 53-year-old man, according to regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin on Telegram.

    Kyiv, the capital city, came under attack with a barrage of four massive explosions on that same Friday. The reverberations of these explosions were felt across the city as Kyiv’s air defense systems successfully intercepted Russian ballistic missiles.

    The mayor of the city, Vitali Klitschko, shared via Telegram: “In addition to the remnants of the rocket that impacted a children’s hospital within the city’s boundaries, two additional crash sites were located in Kyiv’s Obolon district. The roof of a private residence on Bogatyrska Street incurred damage.

    Furthermore, in the Obolon area, wreckage was discovered within an open space belonging to one of the summer cooperatives. Thankfully, there have been no reported casualties.”

    A collaborative open-source initiative involving the BBC Russian service and the Mediazona website has independently verified the deaths of over 30,000 Russian service personnel connected to the conflict in Ukraine.

    This project, utilizing publicly accessible information including online obituaries, newspaper reports, and images from gravestones, has systematically documented and categorized the fatalities based on geographic region, military unit, and age. However, Mediazona stipulated on its website that the actual count of casualties is notably higher.

  • Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskyy pushes for additional sanctions after a “new wave of terror” 

    After the attacks on Ukraine on Monday, President Zelensky encouraged nations to impose additional sanctions on Russia in response to “a new wave of terror.”

    As Russian missiles struck various parts of the nation, at least 19 people were killed and numerous others were injured.

    Defiant, he said the attacks will only “delay our recovery a little”.

    Following more strikes on Tuesday, Mr Zelensky called on the West to find new ways to apply political pressure to Russia and support Ukraine.

    The calls came after he met the G7 group of nations for emergency virtual talks on Tuesday.

    The bloc – which consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US – promised to continue providing “financial, humanitarian, military, diplomatic and legal” support to his country “for as long as it takes”.

    Mr Zelensky said: “For such a new wave of terror there must be a new wave of responsibility for Russia – new sanctions, new forms of political pressure, and new forms of support for Ukraine.”

    “The terrorist state must be deprived of even the thought that any wave of terror can bring it anything.”

    Russian President Vladimir Putin said the attacks were retaliation for Saturday’s explosion on a key bridge linking Russia to Crimea.

    Western countries have already placed widespread sanctions against Russian businesses as well as allies of President Putin since the invasion of Ukraine in February.

    This includes removing major Russian banks from the international financial messaging system Swift and sanctioning more than 1,000 Russian individuals and businesses – including oligarchs.

    While the US has banned all Russian oil and gas imports, the EU has been reluctant to do so because it relies on Russia for about 40% of its gas needs.

    Monday’s barrage of missile strikes was the heaviest bombardment Ukraine has seen since the early days of the war. Several strikes hit Kyiv – the first time the capital city has been targeted in months, and previous attacks have not hit the city center.

    Civilian areas including a popular park and children’s playground were hit during the morning rush hour. Infrastructure was destroyed, causing a power blackout in many neighbourhoods.

    On Tuesday, President Zelensky said 28 more missiles were fired, 20 of which were shot down. These included Iranian combat drones, he said. The BBC has not been able to verify this.

    “If it wasn’t for today’s strikes, we would have already restored the energy supply, water supply, and communications that the terrorists damaged yesterday,” the president said in his nightly address on Tuesday evening.

    “Today, Russia will achieve only one additional thing: it will delay our recovery a little.”

    He added that restoration works were taking place “quickly and efficiently” throughout the country and that electricity and communication had been restored to most cities and villages targeted in Monday’s attacks.

    “Where there was destruction, the infrastructure will be renewed everywhere. Where there were losses, there is already or will be construction,” he said.

    On Tuesday, reports also emerged of a mass grave being found in recently liberated Lyman, in the eastern Donetsk region.

    Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk region’s military administration, was quoted by Associated Press as saying that more than 50 bodies of soldiers and civilians had been found in a series of graves. They included Ukrainian soldiers buried together in a mass grave, as well as individual graves holding the bodies of civilians.

    “We are finding bodies and parts of bodies here,” Mr Kyrylenko said.

    Lyman was liberated by Ukrainian troops last month, as part of a rapid counteroffensive that recaptured large parts of the east of the country from Russian forces.

    Meanwhile, in Washington, US President Joe Biden told CNN he believed Vladimir Putin was a “rational actor” who misjudged his ability to successfully invade Ukraine.

    “I think he thought he’d be welcomed with open arms – that this was the home of mother Russia in Kyiv and he was going to be welcomed – and I think he totally miscalculated,” Mr Biden said.

    Asked about the prospects of meeting President Putin at next month’s Group of 20 summits in Indonesia, Mr Biden said he did not currently see a reason to do so.

    “It would depend on specifically what he wanted to talk about,” the US president said, adding that he would be open to discussing Brittney Griner, the American basketball star currently serving a nine-year prison sentence in Russia on drug charges.

    “But look, he’s acted brutally. I think he’s committed war crimes, so I don’t see any rationale to meet with him now,” Mr Biden told CNN’s, Jake Tapper.

    President Biden also said he didn’t believe Mr Putin would resort to nuclear warfare, despite apparent threats to do so.

    “I think it’s irresponsible for him to talk about it, the idea that a world leader of one of the largest nuclear powers in the world says he may use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine,” Joe Biden said.