Several high-ranking Ukrainian officials were fired on Wednesday, the day after a series of firings in the president’s administration, all amid a corruption scandal involving army procurement, AFP reported, News.ro reported.

In a statement, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine reported that five regional prosecutors – of the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, the central region of Kirovohrad region, as well as the northern regions of Poltava, Sumy, and Chernihiv – left their positions “upon request.”

Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov announced on Facebook on Wednesday that the head of the Army Procurement Department, Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, had also been fired after being suspended since December.

These new resignations follow a cascade of resignations and dismissals that took place in Ukraine on Tuesday: five regional governors, four deputy ministers and two heads of state institutions were dismissed from their positions, as well as the deputy head of the presidential administration and the deputy prosecutor general. .

The reason for this reshuffle was the scandal related to the contract signed by the Ministry of Defense about the allegedly inflated price of food for soldiers.

According to Anastasia Radina, head of the anti-corruption commission of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, on Wednesday the Ministry of Defense admitted that there were “errors” in the contract and a “price review” is being conducted to correct them.

Oleksiy Reznikov initially assured that the scandal was an “artificial information attack” under a “false pretext”, and his ministry referred to “baseless” accusations. On Wednesday, the ministry announced on Telegram the reform of the army’s food system and said it was ready to “open up” some of the “state defense contracts”.

However, not all resignations are related to this scandal, but also to other crimes.

It is the first major case of corruption in Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022, as Kyiv’s Western allies, whose military and financial support is crucial, prepare to send it modern tanks. Before the war, the country was regularly rocked by similar scandals.