Dozens of top Ukrainian politicians have been poked after a corruption scandal

Ukraine's Deputy Prosecutor General Oleksiy Symonenko and Deputy Defense Minister Vyacheslav Shapovalov are leaving their posts - the latter after what the Ministry of Defense in Kyiv calls "groundless corruption allegations".

In addition, the country's deputy minister of social affairs and two deputy ministers within the infrastructure ministry are resigning.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy chief of staff at the Ukrainian presidential office, also announced his resignation on Tuesday morning.

The Ukrainian public service company Suspilne states that five regional governors have also had to leave their posts.

It will be about the leaders of the Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhya, Sumy, Kherson and Kyiv regions.

This weekend, Vasyl Lozynskyj, deputy minister at Ukraine's Ministry of Infrastructure, resigned following allegations that he accepted a million-dollar bribe.

- What we have seen in recent days is that ordinary officials of the Ukrainian anti-corruption authorities have gone after very senior Ukrainian politicians with their investigations and accusations and corruption - and there have been legal consequences for that, says Tobias Thyberg, Sweden's ambassador to Ukraine to Current.

Widespread corruption

Ukraine, like many other former Soviet states, has a long history of unstable leadership and widespread corruption.

In February 2019, SVT's Uppdrag review could reveal that Ukraine's former president Viktor Yanukovych used Swedbank in 2011 to siphon the equivalent of SEK 34 million out of the country.

According to a Ukrainian prosecutor who investigated Yanukovych and exposed the scheme, the money came from a suspected bribery deal.

The SEK 43 million was sent from a book publisher and the basis for the transactions were false.

When Zelenskyy took office as president, in May 2019, one of his big promises was to end widespread corruption in the country.

In 2021, Ukraine ranked 122 out of 180 on the anti-corruption organization Transparency International's annual corruption index – not much better than, for example, Russia.