A Ukrainian anti-corruption agency said on Tuesday it has detained five people and identified seven other suspects in a major graft investigation that centres on alleged kickbacks worth some $100 million in the country’s energy sector. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau did not name the suspects in its statement but said they included a businessman believed to be the scheme’s mastermind; a former advisor to the country’s energy minister; and an executive of the national atomic energy company Energoatom.
The statement came a day after the agency revealed some details of a 15-month investigation into suspected energy sector corruption, including at Energoatom. Large amounts of Ukrainian and foreign funds have flowed into the energy sector as infrastructure is repeatedly repaired following relentless Russian aerial attacks. Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said Tuesday that Russia attacked energy infrastructure in the Kharkiv, Odesa and Donetsk regions overnight and that scheduled power outages were in place in mostregions of Ukraine.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau is tasked with rooting out entrenched corruption, which is widely regarded as an impediment to Kyiv’s efforts to obtain membership in the European Union. It targets high-level corruption, particularly cases involving senior officials and state-owned enterprises. It has previously been reported that uncovered a major graft scheme involving inflated military procurement contracts and the embezzlement of millions of dollars’ worth of funds earmarked to buy mortar shells for Ukraine’s efforts to foil Russia’s all-out invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the latest probe. “Any effective action against corruption is an urgent need,” he said in his Monday night address to the nation”.
