While Ukrainian President Zelensky secured more weapons from his Western allies, anti-corruption authority swooped on the country’s top judges in Kyiv.
Zelensky, on tour in Europe, was handed promises of more military support from France and the UK just as the Ukrainian anti-corruption bureau announced on Telegram that it had “exposed large-scale corruption in the Supreme Court”.
The bureau said it had uncovered a “scheme for the leadership and judges of the Supreme Court to receive bribes”. One of the country’s top judges is alleged to be linked a US$ 3 million dollar kickback.
“You see that we are showing through real cases, real deeds, what our priority is: it’s top corruption, it’s a criminal organisation at the highest levels of power,” the bureau’s director, Semen Kryvonos, told journalists in the capital.
Accompanying the announcement, the bureau posted a picture of piles of dollars stacked up on a sofa.
Ukrainian media reported that the national anti-corruption bureau and anti-corruption prosecutor’s office are conducting searches at the offices of 18 more Supreme Court judges.
The bribes are said to have come from businessmen and at least one former member of parliament who were seeking favourable decisions.
Zelenskyy has repeatedly promised the West to fight the culture of bribes that is considered widespread in Ukraine.
The last time Ukraine made a big against corruption sweep was in January. On that occasion a vice-minister was targeted, as were a former minister of home affairs and other high-ranking officials. That anti-corruption sweep came shortly after France, Germany and the US agreed to hand over light tanks.
