Accusation: “illegal enrichment”
Ukrainian military official arrested
07/24/2023 11:59 p.m
The relatives of a senior Ukrainian officer are reportedly spending millions on cars and real estate abroad. The man is now being arrested on suspicion of corruption. The accusation: He is said to have exempted men from military service in exchange for bribes.
A former high-ranking officer has been arrested in Ukraine on suspicion of corruption. According to media reports, the ex-officer, who was dismissed at the end of June, is accused of accepting bribes to prevent citizens from being drafted into the army. Yevgen Borisov is accused of “illegal enrichment,” among other things, according to the state investigative agency DBR, which is entrusted with cases of corruption at the highest level.
As head of a district military replacement office in Odessa, he is said to have bought real estate worth millions in Spain during the war. He faces up to ten years in prison if convicted. According to a statement from the Presidential Office, Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Saluschnyi was ordered in June to immediately dismiss the man “about whom the whole country is talking”.
Internet newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda previously reported that members of the military official’s family – his mother, mother-in-law and wife – bought multi-million euro real estate on the Spanish coast and luxury cars. The acquisitions are said to have been made by the end of 2022. The case had already been made public in April by an ex-MP. However, Kiev only reacted after the media report.
Investigators said the suspect tried to evade investigators by changing phone numbers and license plates. “There was an active search for him for two days, and finally he was discovered and arrested as a result of extensive operational investigations in Kiev,” the agency said.
The fight against corruption is one of the EU’s conditions for Ukraine’s accession. In recent months, there have been several high-profile raids in the country over allegations of corruption.