KYIV, Ukraine — The removal of Ukraine’s minister of defense after a flurry of reports of graft and financial mismanagement in his department underscores a pivotal challenge for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s wartime leadership: stamping out the corruption that had been widespread in Ukraine for years. Official corruption was a topic that had been mostly taboo throughout the first year of the war, as Ukrainians rallied around their government in a fight for national survival. But Zelenskyy’s an
The removal of the defense minister highlights the enduring challenge of corruption in Ukraine, which has emerged as a rare area of criticism of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s leadership.
Ukrainian Defense Minister, Oleksii Reznikov, will resign, and his position will be filled by the current head of Ukraine’s State Property Fund (SPFU), Rustem Umerov, Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak announced via Telegram on Aug. 31.
Welcome to Investigative Stories from Ukraine, the Kyiv Independent's newsletter that walks you through the most prominent investigations of the past week. If you are fond of in-depth journalism that exposes war crimes, corruption and abuse of power across state organizations in Ukraine and beyond, subscribe to our investigative newsletter. A Turkish company that sold $20 million worth of jackets to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, was co-founded by a 24-year-old nephew of a member of the Ukrainian parliament, Ukrainska Pravda reported.