In an unexpected announcement, Volodymyr Zelensky suddenly sacked, on Friday August 11, all regional military recruitment officials. ” The system [de recrutement] should be led by people who know what war is, and who know that cynicism and corruption during war is high treason. Recruiters must be soldiers who have been at the front, or who cannot fight in the trenches because they have lost their health, undergone amputations, but who have retained their dignity”said Ukrainian President in a video message on his Telegram account. It gives an enlightening figure of the extent of the problem – one hundred and twelve criminal proceedings have been initiated against officials of the military enlistment offices – and denounces “illegal enrichment” and “illegal transport of conscripts across the border”.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valery Zaluzhny, was tasked with carrying out the decision of the Head of State, and Volodymyr Zelensky clarified that all future recruiting officers for the army ” iron[aie]nt beforehand [l’objet d’enquêtes] by the security services of Ukraine ».
In recent months, several high-profile scandals have erupted in the country, involving the heads of regional army enlistment centers. The latest is the military commissar of Odessa, Evgeny Borisov, suspected of illegal enrichment during the war.
State television broadcast on Friday the images of Mr. Borisov’s appearance before the military court in Odessa. The man appeared wearing a black floral shirt, his face hidden in his hands. The prosecution demanded immediate imprisonment for two months in a remand center, considering that the defendant has the documents and resources necessary to flee abroad, alluding to the real estate which would belong to him in Spain. A newspaper survey Ukrainska Pravda revealed on July 22 that the Commissioner has accumulated a fortune of 4.6 million euros unrelated to his declared income. On December 15, 2022, he acquired a villa in Marbella, Andalusia, for 3.7 million euros, while Ukraine lived under daily bombardment by the Russian army.
Erosion of Volodymyr Zelensky’s trust rating
The Ukrainian press also mentions the case of Borys Hlushak, a 29-year-old man suffering from a pronounced mental disability, sent to serve on July 31 and died the next day. The medical commission of Chyriaeve (a town north of Odessa) had just judged him fit to serve, despite the indignation of his relatives. At the same time, the independent press has regularly flushed out elected officials or senior officials making more or less prolonged stays abroad, in violation of martial law, which prohibits men aged 18 to 60 from leaving the national territory.
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