Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vetoed legislation that allowed officials to continue not disclosing their assets, as Kyiv struggles to clamp down on corruption and assure allies that it’s committed to fighting graft.
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The September 12 veto comes days after Zelenskiy pushed out his defense minister and shuffled several other top officials amid growing concerns that corruption and embezzlement have continued despite the ongoing Russian invasion, now in its 18th month.
Last week, parliament voted to restore a rule that required government officials to publicly declare their assets, a rule that had been suspended since the invasion. But the legislation included a loophole that would keep the disclosures closed to the public for another year.
In a video posted to Telegram, Zelenskiy said he was vetoing the legislation, saying the disclosures should not wait.
"Declarations should be open. Immediately. Not in a year," he said.
Vitaliy Shabunin, a prominent anti-corruption campaigner, said on Telegram that Zelenskiy's veto was a "victory" for civil society.
Western allies have watched closely as billions of dollars in weaponry, humanitarian aid, and government support have bolstered Kyiv in its fight against the Russian invasion. The Ukrainian economy has been devastated by the war, and outside financial support is all but keeping the government functional.
But a growing number of reports have pointed to problems involving things such as artificially inflated prices for food and military jackets, or bribery at military recruiting stations.
Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov resigned last week, in a move seen as a shake-up by Zelenskiy to try and dispel some of the outside concerns. Resnikov was replaced by Rustem Umerov, who previously headed the State Property Fund and was a key figure in evacuating Ukrainians from Russian-occupied territories.
A top White House official, Jake Sullivan, met with Ukrainian law enforcement and anti-corruption officials on September 2 in Washington, D.C., to discuss Ukraine’s efforts to fight corruption.
The International Monetary Fund had said that public asset declarations were a key benchmark for transferring part of a $15.6 billion assistance package.
Ukraine is in the middle of a three-month counteroffensive against Russian forces, pushing along two fronts in the southern Zaporizhzhya region, and to the east around the devastated Donetsk region city of Bakhmut.
Ukrainian forces have been moving slowly, gradually breaching some of Russia’s extensive defenses, in a thrust aimed at pushing to the coast of the Sea of Azov.
Meanwhile, Russia accused Ukraine of attacking the city where Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant is located. State-owned atomic energy company Rosatom said several drones attacked Enerhodar, a town where the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant is located, but the drones were either downed or caused no damage.
The plant, which before the war supplied a considerable amount of Ukraine’s electricity, has been under Russian control since shortly after the invasion.
Ukrainian authorities made no comment on the claim.
Rosatom chief Aleksei Likhachev asserted the drone attack was in response to elections that Russia organized in the occupied parts of Zaporizhzhya and three other Ukrainian regions. International observers have called the elections a sham and said they were neither fair nor free.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who visited Kyiv on September 11, said Ukraine still had "a way to go...in the fight against corruption.”
With reporting by Reuters