Ukraine’s Zelensky Removes Top Officials in Bid to Contain Corruption Scandals

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has removed nearly a dozen top officials as he tries to contain a series of corruption scandals and shore up Western confidence in his administration at a critical moment in the war.

Though the scandals are small compared with those of previous Ukrainian governments—some of which were accused of stealing billions in public funds—they are nonetheless a blow to Mr. Zelensky, who has garnered praise at home and abroad for his leadership of the country during Russia’s invasion.

Mr. Zelensky’s decision to dispatch apparently tainted officials, while others tendered resignations, underscores the importance of maintaining a clean image, both for Ukrainian citizens, who are dying in the thousands on the front lines and enduring economic hardship, and for Western governments, which are giving Ukraine billions in aid despite their own tepid economies. In the U.S., some Republicans have openly questioned whether the country should continue to fund Ukraine at the same levels as last year.

In a series of public addresses this week, Mr. Zelensky indicated he was seeking to clean house by dismissing officials of various levels in ministries, the regions and law enforcement, and tried to present the firings as proof of a break from corrupt regimes of the past.

“We will continue to take appropriate steps—the public will see each of them,” he said during his nightly address on Tuesday. “Any internal issues that hinder the state are being removed and will continue to be removed.”

In Washington, a bipartisan group of senators who traveled to Ukraine earlier this month said at a news conference on Capitol Hill that the firings hadn’t shaken their confidence in Mr. Zelensky, but rather demonstrated that he was taking allegations of corruption seriously. They said they were assured while in the country that there is no evidence that U.S. equipment or funds had been affected.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.) said that a briefing the lawmakers received in Ukraine at the U.S. Embassy gave them confidence that the checks and balances in place were adequate, and that the Ukrainians were working hard to demonstrate accountability, even in some cases with great difficulty.

“When you’re actually running around being shot at, to make sure you’re saving your missile tubes so that you can keep score correctly, it’s not an easy ask,” Mr. Whitehouse said. “And they are not complaining. They’re doing it because they know that we need to have that confidence in America, and the embassy on the ground, knowing this, including our military officials, are confident.”

Over the past year, the annual defense-policy bill and multiple supplemental Ukraine funding bills passed by Congress have included provisions requiring regular reports by inspector-general offices within the federal agencies responsible for delivering the billions in economic, humanitarian and military aid: the Defense Department, State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Some Republicans have called for additional oversight and audits of U.S. aid to Ukraine. A bill proposed by Sen. John Kennedy (R., La.) would establish an inspector general solely dedicated to monitoring Ukraine aid, modeled on the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) said at Tuesday’s news conference that lawmakers pushing for continued aid to Ukraine aren’t asking for a blank check. “We’re asking for a big check with oversight and scrutiny,” he said. “And what was impressive to me, in fact, is that all of the scrutiny and oversight so far has disclosed no fraud or waste. No misappropriation of any of the military or humanitarian assistance that we’ve provided so far.”

Mr. Blumenthal said the firings were “very important because it demonstrates what President Zelensky has told us, that there will be zero tolerance for fraud or waste.”

Some Republicans reiterated their criticism of U.S. aid to Ukraine after Mr. Zelensky’s anti-corruption moves.

“Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world and the war with Russia doesn’t change that,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) said on Twitter on Tuesday. “How much of America’s hard earned tax dollars are being stolen or going to people or things it wasn’t supposed to go to? We will audit Ukraine.”

The dismissals in Ukraine included the removal on Tuesday of the governors of five of the country’s regions, according to Taras Melnychuk, the government’s representative in parliament. Six top officials in Kyiv were also removed.

Though no reason was given for most of the dismissals, the shake-up follows a series of public corruption allegations, and Mr. Zelensky has decided to let go of some who were accused of malfeasance months ago.

Valentyn Reznichenko, who had been the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, has been accused in local media of funneling more than $40 million in government contracts to associates, including his girlfriend. He couldn’t be reached for comment. The governors of the Kyiv, Sumy, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions were also fired.

Deputy Defense Minister Vyacheslav Shapovalov resigned on Tuesday, following allegations in the local media that the country’s military was overpaying for food services. Mr. Shapovalov couldn’t be reached for comment.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a deputy head of the presidential administration who resigned on Monday, had been photographed driving a Porsche that Ukrainian media said belonged to a businessman, and was accused of appropriating for his own use a sport-utility vehicle donated to deliver aid. In a post on Telegram on Tuesday, Mr. Tymoshenko thanked a list of people, including Mr. Zelensky, but offered no reason for his resignation.

Ukraine’s deputy infrastructure minister, Vasyl Lozinskiy, was caught accepting a bribe of $400,000 and arrested, according to Ukrainian law enforcement. He was dismissed from his post earlier this week. Mr. Lozinskiy couldn’t be reached for comment.

In addition, Mr. Zelensky signed a decree barring state employees from leaving the country except on official government business.

The ban was an apparent response to reports in the Ukrainian media last week that Deputy Prosecutor General Oleksiy Symonenko went on vacation in December to Spain, where he drove a car belonging to a prominent Ukrainian businessman. Mr. Symonenko has also resigned. He couldn’t be reached for comment.

“Officials will no longer be able to travel abroad for vacation or for any other nongovernmental purpose,” Mr. Zelensky said in his video address. He added: “If they want to take vacations now, they will take vacations outside the civil service.”

Ukraine is seeking more military aid from the West to achieve a breakthrough amid what has turned into a grinding war, after Kyiv toward the end of last year regained swaths of territory lost early in the Russian invasion. The U.S. and its allies are funneling billions to prop up Ukraine’s economy, along with the provision of military aid.

Some Republicans in the U.S., who now control the House of Representatives, have called for more accounting of the money being sent to Ukraine and questioned whether the U.S. should continue to offer billions in aid.

Josh Hawley, a Republican senator from Missouri, said he skipped Mr. Zelensky’s speech to Congress last month. “I didn’t want to be part of a photo op asking for more money from the United States government when they haven’t given us a single piece of accounting on anything they’ve spent,” he said at the time.

The corruption accusations appeared small compared with past scandals that have seen billions drained from public coffers. Former President Viktor Yanukovych, for example, was accused of stealing billions from the state before he fled to Russia amid mass street protests in 2014, leaving behind an opulent palace with a garage replete with luxury cars and an animal park including ostriches. He denied wrongdoing.

Since the ouster of Mr. Yanukovych, Ukraine has sought to demonstrate progress in fighting corruption to draw closer to the West, opening an anticorruption bureau with help from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. But antigraft campaigners said progress was slow amid foot-dragging and resistance among corrupted elites.

When European Union member states agreed to grant Ukraine candidate status last June, they tasked the government with giving teeth to its anticorruption offices. Ukraine has since then appointed an anticorruption prosecutor, a post that had been vacant for two years.

The European Commission will report on Ukraine’s progress in cracking down on corruption and reducing the influence of oligarchs in the fall. That report will pave the way for discussions among member states about whether the country is ready to begin accession talks with the bloc.

The EU has also linked some of its financial assistance to Ukraine to steps to tackle corruption.

“Ukraine is of course expected to further strengthen the fight against corruption in particular at high level through proactive and effective investigations and a credible track record of prosecutions and convictions,” Ana Pisonero, a European Commission spokeswoman, said on Tuesday following the announcement of the firings and resignations.

Mr. Zelensky, a former actor in a sitcom where he played a graft-busting president, ran for office pledging to root out corruption.

Even before the war, however, he faced criticism among opponents and activists about not following through on his promise to end the culture of graft.

Daria Kaleniuk, co-founder of the nongovernmental Anticorruption Action Center, said that before the war, Mr. Zelensky, like past presidents, protected his deputies who were accused of wrongdoing.

The dismissal of Mr. Tymoshenko—who like Mr. Zelensky worked in entertainment before entering politics—was a good sign, Ms. Kaleniuk said, but she added that the allegations about food procurement in the Defense Ministry needed a more forceful response. Though the deputy minister resigned, the minister of defense had denied wrongdoing.

“Usually in Ukraine, presidents don’t like firing their team members,” in response to corruption allegations, she said. “It’s a step forward, compared to how other presidents behaved.”