Zelensky sacks army recruitment chiefs after draft-dodgers helped out of country | World News

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has sacked the heads of the country’s regional military draft boards as part of his ongoing crackdown on corruption.

He said an investigation had revealed claims some had taken bribes from men hoping to dodge the draft, while others were helped to flout the wartime ban on leaving the country.

More than 100 criminal cases have been opened as part of the wide-ranging probe launched in the wake of a corruption scandal at a recruitment office in the Odesa region last month.

‘This system should be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery during war is treason,’ Zelensky said, adding that those fired would be replaced by veterans and soldiers wounded at the front.

Ukraine has made stamping out corruption a priority as it fends off Russia’s full-scale invasion and seeks membership of the European Union.

A string of high-ranking officials implicated in sleaze have been fired or prosecuted.

Friday’s move comes at a particularly sensitive moment for Kyiv with its long-touted counteroffensive hampered by extensive Russian defences across swathes of the southeast.

Zelensky said that any sacked army recruitment officers who are not being investigated should head to the front to fight for Ukraine ‘if they want to keep their epaulettes and prove their dignity’.

But he ‘emphasised’ the army ‘is not and never will be a substitute for criminal punishment’, adding: ‘Officials who confused epaulettes with perks will definitely face trial.’

Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have been killed or wounded fighting since Russia invaded in February 2022.

Ukraine has increasingly faced recruitment challenges as the war, now in a brutally attritional phase, nears the 18-month mark.

The long-simmering issue of corruption in Ukraine’s draft system burst into the open last June.

A media investigation was published about Odesa’s regional draft commissar Ievhen Borysov, igniting a scandal.

It reported on millions of dollars’ worth of real estate and luxury vehicles allegedly owned by Borysov’s family members in Spain.

Borysov denied any wrongdoing, saying he had nothing to do with what his family purchased.

After the report, Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation and its Security Service detained scores of draft board staff suspected of bribery and corruption.

Videos purporting to depict army recruiters aggressively pursuing or becoming violent with would-be draftees have gone viral on social media in the country, which has been under martial law since the invasion.

Zelensky said top general Valery Zaluzhny would be responsible for implementing Friday’s decision and that new candidates for the posts would first be vetted by Ukraine’s domestic security service.

Despite recent moves against sleaze, Ukraine still ranks 116th out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index.

A Transparency-commissioned opinion poll in June found that 77% of Ukrainians believe corruption is among Ukraine’s most serious problems.

Zelensky was elected in 2019 on a campaign pledge to stomp out corruption.

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