Kyiv
Reuters
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Ukrainian anti-corruption groups said on Saturday they discovered a major graft scheme that inflated military drones and signal jamming systems two days after government independence recovered after major protests.
The independence of Ukrainian anti-graft investigators and prosecutors Nabu and Sapo was revived by Parliament on Thursday after bringing the country’s biggest demonstration since the 2022 Russian invasion.
In a statement released by both agencies on social media, Nabu and Sapo said that sitting lawmakers, two local officials and an unspecified number of National Guard personnel are being taken to the bribe. None of them were identified in the statement.
“The essence of this scheme was to sign a state contract with a supplier company at a price that was intentionally inflated,” he added that the offender received a kickback of up to 30% of the cost of the contract. Four people have been arrested.
“There’s nothing but zero resistance to corruption, clear teamwork to expose corruption, and, as a result, fair writing,” Ukrainian President Voldimi Zelensky wrote in Telegram.
Zelensky, who has expanded the wartime presidential power and enjoys widespread recognition among Ukrainians, was forced on rare political aspects when he raised the first nationwide protests of the war, trying to bring Nab and Sapo into the control of prosecutors.
Zelensky then said he heard people’s rage and introduced a bill to restore the previous independence of the institution voted by Congress on Thursday.
Ukraine’s European allies praised the move and expressed concern about the original peeling of the institutional status.
A senior European official told Zelensky that Ukraine is putting bids for European Union membership at risk by suppressing the powers of anti-graft authorities.
“It is important that anti-corruption agencies operate independently, and the law adopted on Thursday ensures every opportunity for a real fight against corruption,” Zelensky wrote to them on Saturday after meeting the head of the agency, whom he explained to him in his latest investigation.
