Ukraine: the authorities launch a vast anti-corruption operation

Former Interior Minister Arsen Avakov (right), here in 2020 with President Zelensky, is among those targeted by the searches.

(illustrative image) AFP - ALEKSEY FILIPPOV

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1 min

The authorities seem to be accelerating the fight against corruption.

On Wednesday, the police and special services carried out a wave of searches at the homes of several members of the administration, but also of leading figures.

These searches come two days before an EU-Ukraine summit to be held Friday in kyiv.

The kyiv government seems determined to pledge its international support. 

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With our correspondent in Kiev,

The oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, for a long time third fortune of Ukraine, was still dressed in an ordinary indoor tracksuit when the men of the SBU, the Ukrainian security services, intervened in one of his residences, for reasons that do not know. have not yet been disclosed.

Same treatment with regard to Arsen Avakov, the former powerful Minister of the Interior, from 2014 to 2021, under Petro Poroshenko and under Volodymyr Zelensky.

On Wednesday, dozens of searches took place at different levels of the administration throughout the country and the entire customs department was sacked.

This turn of the screw comes a few days after the revelation of a scandal over dubious tenders within the Ministry of the Interior, and it seems that Volodymyr Zelensky, who now has popularity and political authority like no Ukrainian president in the last thirty years, understands that the acceleration of Western financial and military support for Ukraine depends on the fight against corruption within the country.

Even if it means neutralizing the men, who like Kolomoisky and Avakov, brought him to power four years ago.

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