Ukraine’s military officials dismissed over bribery scandal
- 13 August, 16:30
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has sacked heads of Ukraine’s regional military recruitment centers in the latest attempt to fight corruption in the country’s army.
In a video statement on August 11, Zelenskiy said that taking bribes from those seeking to avoid being sent to a frontline at a time of a war amounts to treachery.
“This system should be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery during war is treason, Zeleneksiy said. “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,” he stressed.
Zelenskiy has ordered Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, 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… It’s 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 said.
Elected in 2019, Zelenskiy had vowed to fight corruption in the country.
