Zelenskyy warns Ukraine officials over corruption after two arrests

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Ukraine’s president has warned government officials and lawmakers that “personal enrichment” and “betrayal” will not be tolerated, after the arrest of a military recruitment chief on embezzlement charges and an MP accused of collaborating with Russia.

“No one will forgive MPs, judges, ‘military commissars’ or any other officials for putting themselves in opposition to the state,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly TV address on Tuesday. “Any internal betrayal . . . or any personal enrichment . . . triggers fury at the very least.”

His comments came after the arrest on Monday of Yevhen Borysov, head of the military recruitment office in Odesa, by Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and Prosecutor General’s Office. The National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption said he had illegally acquired more than $5mn through elaborate business schemes.

A Kyiv district court ordered that Borysov be held in pre-trial detention and set bail at about $4mn. He has not commented on the charges.

Ukraine has taken measures in recent months to show its western backers that it is responding to demands to stamp out deep-rooted corruption as it steps up efforts to join the EU.

Brussels granted the country formal membership candidate status last year. But its bid to join the bloc will depend largely on credible rule of law and anti-corruption reforms.

Brussels said last month that Kyiv had fully met two of the seven conditions established by the EU as part of Ukraine’s candidacy that must be fulfilled before starting membership negotiations, which Zelenskyy hopes to begin by the end of the year.

In Tuesday night’s address, Zelenskyy told lawmakers: “Every law that is needed to strengthen the position of our troops must be adopted. Every law that is necessary for Ukraine to start negotiations with the EU on accession must be adopted.”

Oleksandr Ponomaryov, a lawmaker from a now-banned pro-Russia party, has meanwhile been accused of collaborating with Moscow and its invasion forces.

On Wednesday, the SBI and state prosecutors accused the party’s founder, Vadim Rabinovych, of treason, claiming he “distributed anti-Ukrainian propaganda information among the population and the political leadership of the countries of the European Union”.

Investigators also searched the home of Yuriy Aristov, a lawmaker in Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party and deputy chair of the parliamentary committee on national security, defence and intelligence, for allegedly forging health documents that allowed him to leave Ukraine despite a ban on officials travelling abroad during the war. The SBI said he had gone on vacation to the Maldives with his family.

“Unfortunately, some people think that the war is somewhere far away from them. As if the dome of the Verkhovna Rada [Ukraine’s parliament] or the walls of some offices, or a list of some powers can shield from reality,” Zelenskyy said.

Kyiv says it has increased oversight of the billions of dollars worth in military and financial assistance provided by the west since Russia’s full-scale invasion began, with Zelenskyy last month ordering an audit of military recruitment offices and procedures to identify and quash any corruption.

The president said on Tuesday night that the results were “disappointing”.

Prosecutors claim Ponomaryov’s commercial interests in the Russian-occupied city of Berdyansk in south-eastern Ukraine have been supporting Russian forces with fuel, food and other supplies. They allege he struck the deal in the first days of the all-out invasion in February last year, before returning to the government-controlled territory.

Kyiv’s Pechersk District Court ordered Ponomaryov to be held in pre-trial detention for 60 days without bail. Ponomaryov has not commented on the charges but he has denied collaborating with Russia in the past.