Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday called on his justice and energy ministers to resign over a sweeping corruption scandal in the country’s war-battered energy sector.
Investigators have alleged a key Zelensky ally orchestrated a $100 million kickback scheme to siphon funds, triggering public anger at a time of widespread power outages caused by Russian attacks.
Ukraine has long been plagued by corruption, and cracking down on graft is seen as a key requirement of its bid to join the European Union.
Zelensky said his Justice Minister German Galushchenko, who investigators say was involved in the scheme and received “personal benefits”, as well Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk should tender their resignations.
“The minister of justice and the minister of energy cannot remain in their positions,” Zelensky said in a video posted on social media.
It is “absolutely unacceptable that there are still some (corruption) schemes in the energy sector” while Ukrainians are facing daily outages from Russian attacks, he added.
The government had earlier suspended Galushchenko, who was energy minister until earlier this year, but he is not yet known to have been charged.
Grynchuk, who took over the energy ministry in July, said earlier that Energoatom, the state nuclear operator at the centre of the investigation, was cooperating with the investigators.
In court on Tuesday, an anti-corruption prosecutor said Timur Mindich, a close ally of President Volodymyr Zelensky, had masterminded the scheme.
Mindich co-owns the production company Kvartal 95, founded by Zelensky, who was a star comedian before running for office.
Zelensky has yet to comment on Mindich, who fled the country shortly before the allegations were announced on Monday.
His production company said the probe was not “related to the work of the studio.”
Ukraine’s prime minister said Wednesday that Kyiv was imposing personal sanctions on Mindich and Oleksandr Tsukerman, another businessman charged in the scheme.
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