Ukrainian civil servants who shirk their military duties will be immediately fired, a senior aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday amid a crackdown on corruption, Reuters reported.

Several officials were fired this week after a series of scandals and allegations of corruption. Political scientists believe that Zelenskyi should show Western partners and war-weary Ukrainians that he is serious about punishing corruption.

“Everyone should understand their responsibility to the country and the nation during the war. Anyone who forgets about this will expect a quick reaction,” said Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelenskyi’s administration.

“This will happen to everyone who can afford to forget (what their duties are), regardless of name and position,” Yermak wrote on Twitter.

Among the most high-profile cases is the deputy minister of defense, who resigned after he denied information that his ministry paid inflated prices for products intended for the Ukrainian military.

A presidential aide accused by local media of driving flashy cars also resigned, as did a senior prosecutor who Ukrainian media reported was vacationing in Marbella, Spain, in violation of martial law.

Thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed, millions displaced and cities reduced to rubble since Russian forces invaded Ukraine 11 months ago.

Corruption scandal in the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine

The Ukrainian publication Zn accuses the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, which is headed by Oleksiy Reznikov, of purchasing food for the army at prices that are two to three times higher than Kyiv grocery prices, writes The Kyiv Independent.

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine denied the accusations in the Ukrainian media, saying that the story has “signs of deliberate manipulation and misleading”, but did not provide additional details, reports The Kyiv Independent.

The Ministry of Defense has announced that it will require the Security Service to investigate “false information that harms our defense interests” while martial law is in place.

The Ukrainian publication Zn wrote about the contract of the Ministry of Defense for 2023 on the purchase of food from its sources in the army.

The publication notes that this contract with a total value of UAH 13.16 billion, which is equivalent to EUR 328.4 million, was concluded on December 23 and provides for the supply of food products to the Ukrainian military stationed in Poltava, Sumy, Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv and Cherkasy regions. .

The contract does not provide for the delivery of food to the frontline fighters, where “only delivery can make any purchase more expensive,” writes Zn.

Journalists claim that the Ministry of Defense agreed to pay 17 hryvnias (48 euro cents) for an egg, while in one of the capital’s stores its price is about 7 hryvnias (18 euro cents). A kilogram of potatoes ordered for the Ukrainian military costs 22 hryvnias (55 euro cents), and in Kyiv grocery stores the price is about 9 hryvnias (23 euro cents), reports Zn.

Immediately after the exposure in the media, the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on National Security, Defense and Intelligence summoned high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Defense to answer the accusations.

The corruption scandal in which the deputy minister was detained

Also, several officials of central and regional executive bodies in Ukraine appear in a corruption investigation, as part of which Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Vasyl Lozinsky was arrested, who is accused of embezzling public funds for alternative energy sources in the winter months, reports CNN.

According to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), Lozinsky is accused of receiving commissions in the amount of 400,000 dollars, in this way he was “exposed and embezzled from budget funds.” He would have received the money for facilitating the signing of contracts for the purchase of equipment and machinery, including electric generators, at an inflated price.