2023-08-14 01:01:18
From the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, fired all of the country’s regional military recruiting chiefsafter multiple revelations of cases in which army officers accepted bribes from those who sought to avoid being drafted to fight the Russian invasion.
According to the announcement of this massive purge, prosecutors have opened 112 cases against 33 officials involved in recruiting. The case offers the latest evidence that the war had provided new avenues for entrenched government corruption that has long plagued Ukraine.
Two recruiting officers have been charged in recent days with enriching themselves by falsifying documents that label men unfit for service, in some cases raising $10,000 per person.
The accusations arise as bombs fall on civilians, soldiers die, Ukraine tries to recruit more troops to replace those killed or wounded, and millions sacrifice to ensure the nation’s survival.
Smoke and flames rise after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a Russian-guided aerial bomb hit a blood transfusion center in the city of Kupiansk. Photo Reuters
Zelensky did not hide his contempt when announcing that would fire the 24 regional recruiting chiefs and said in a video posted on social media that “the system must be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery during war is treason.” Those officers who are removed but have not committed any crimes, he added, must serve at the front “if they want to keep their epaulettes and demonstrate their dignity.”
All the heads of the existing centers will be replaced by “soldiers who have been at the front or that they cannot be in the trenches because they have lost their healthThey have lost their limbs.”
The cases
Corruption from draft evasion affects people like Oksana Borkun, whose husband, Volodymyr Hunko, died fighting the Russians. “Indignation arises, anger, both towards those who give a bribe and towards those who take it,” said Borkun, who lives in Irpin, a suburb of Kiev. “despair arisesBecause there are a lot of guys on the front line who need to be replaced a long time ago, because they’re so exhausted.”
But Andriy, an officer with the Territorial Defense Force, said corruption in recruitment centers was well known and removing some of those responsible was unlikely to have much effect on mobilization. Andriy, who discussed political matters on the condition that his last name not be used, said: “Those who wanted to avoid would do so anyway.”
Zelensky, performing for multiple audiences, needs to defend himself against such cynicism. To continue the war must assure Ukrainians that their sacrifices have been worth it and persuade them to do more, while also convincing his Western supporters that he does not tolerate corruption and that the fortune they have invested in propping up his army and government has not been wasted.
United States and European Union officials say there is no evidence that aid to Ukraine has been stolen or diverted, but even the perception of fraud could threaten political support.
The scale of corruption in conscription and evasion of conscription is unclear, but it It is not the first scandal to rock the Zelensky administration, who took office in 2019 vowing to fight systemic corruption.
President Volodimir Zelensky (left) posing for a photo with a military man during his visit to the Donetsk region. AFP photo
A scandal involved the payment of drastically inflated prices for food to the military, which led to the removal of several top government officials. And the government acted on the recruitment scams, as it did in the food-buying scandal, only after the Ukrainian media reported on them.
An investigation by the news outlet Ukrainska Pravda in June revealed that a military enlistment officer from the southern region of Odessa had bought millions of dollars worth of real estate and cars in a coastal area of Spain. The officer, Yehor Smirnov, he was fired and sent to the frontand the case prompted Zelensky to order a system-wide inspection, conducted by various national security and law enforcement agencies.
Ukrainska Pravda reported on Thursday that Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov could be replaced imminently.
Zelensky’s reorganization of recruiting operations represented the most sweeping change in Ukraine’s military structure since the invasion, a reflection of both the depth of the problem and the challenges facing Ukraine. after 18 months of brutal fighting.
The fighting
Although kyiv does not usually disclose casualty figures, Western officials and analysts have estimated that more than 150,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded, in addition to tens of thousands of civilian casualties. Estimates of Russia’s losses are higher, but at around 145 million people it has more than three times the population to profit from.
Ukraine’s two-month counteroffensive to recapture lost territory in the south has turned into a bloody effort, with painfully slow progress toward the occupied cities of Melitopol and Berdiansk. But at the same time, Russian forces advance towards the northeastern city of Kupiansk.
Many of those fighting for Ukraine are volunteers or professional soldiers who see the fight not as a choice but as an obligation. Still, as Ukraine has reached deeper into society to keep its ranks full, the number of people trying to escape the service has grown, Ukrainian officials said.
The State Border Guard has said that an average of 20 men per day are arrested for trying to leave the country. Under the declaration of martial law that followed the invasion, men between the ages of 18 and 60 must remain in Ukraine, report to local recruitment offices and undergo medical examinations for possible service. There are a handful of exemptions, including being enrolled in a university, having a disability, or having at least three children.
Many women also serve in the Ukrainian military, including in combat roles, but they are volunteers, not conscripts.
Some of the corrupt schemes described by prosecutors have involved giving permission to men “unfit” to leave the country. Those involved, in addition to enlistment officers, include medical personnel who review potential soldiers for fitness for duty.
The problem for the Ukrainian government is far less than the exodus from Russia, estimated at hundreds of thousands, which intensified after the Kremlin announced a mobilization of some 300,000 men last September.
But it’s a problem for a war effort that needs resources and public trust, amid a counteroffensive that has so far failed to make much headway. The relentless Russian bombardment aggravates feelings of exhaustion felt by millions of people who would like nothing more than to be left alone, but see no other option but to fight.
The decision to replace the heads of the recruitment offices was approved at a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, and General Valeriy Zaluzhny, head of the Ukrainian armed forces, was tasked with implementing the changes.
The exact number of people in Ukraine’s armed forces is not publicly available, but Reznikov, the defense minister, has said the nation’s goal was to have an army of a million peoplea figure that would include the national guard, police and border guard.
In the early months of the war, the government said they only recruited people with military experience or specifically needed skills. But even then, there were complaints that the recruitment process was secret and rife with corruption.
The New York Times
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