Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that corruption, the country’s long-standing problem that has been pushed to the margins by the war against Russia, would not be tolerated, and promised key decisions on rooting it out this week.
Despite officials promoting national unity in the face of the invasion, Zelenskiy’s pledge came amid allegations of senior-level corruption, including a report of questionable practises in military procurement.
‘I want to be clear: there will be no return to the way various people close to state institutions or those who spent their entire lives chasing a chair used to live,’ Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
Ukraine has a long history of rampant corruption and shaky governance, with Transparency International ranking the country’s corruption at 122 out of 180 countries in 2021, not far behind Russia.
After granting Kyiv candidate status last year, the EU made anti-corruption reforms one of its key requirements for Ukraine’s membership.
‘This week will be for appropriate decisions,’ Zelenskiy stated. ‘Decisions have already been made. I don’t want to make them public at the moment, but everything will be fair.’
Zelenskiy, who was elected by a landslide in 2019 on promises to reform the ex-Soviet state’s governance, said his government had accepted the resignation of a deputy minister following an investigation into allegations he accepted a bribe.
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