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Ukraine’s energy and justice ministers resigned on Wednesday, the government said, over their alleged involvement in a sweeping corruption scandal in the country’s energy sector.
Investigators alleged a key ally of President Volodymyr Zelensky orchestrated a $100-million kickback scheme to siphon off funds, triggering public anger at a time of widespread power outages caused by Russian attacks.
Ukraine has long been plagued by corruption and cracking down is seen as a key requirement of its bid to join the European Union.
Zelensky earlier called for the resignation of his justice minister German Galushchenko, who investigators alleged received “personal benefits” in the scheme, as well as energy minister Svitlana Grynchuk.
Neither is known to have been charged and Grynchuk has not been mentioned as having profited from the scheme.
“The minister of justice and the minister of energy cannot remain in their positions,” President Zelensky announced in a video shared on social media.
Shortly after this announcement, Ukraine’s Prime Minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, confirmed that both ministers had tendered their resignations.
Grynchuk stepped into the role of energy minister during the summer, succeeding Galushchenko.
The scandal has triggered outcry among Ukrainians, who are suffering frequent heating and electricity outages from the Russian bombings.
“It’s disgusting,” Davyd, a 24-year-old content creator, told the Agence France-Presse news agency, declining to give his surname.
“They’re destroying us, our reputation, and our future. We won’t have a future if we have crooks like that,” he said, expressing concern over how the scandal would play among Kyiv’s crucial backers in the EU.
The allegations, unveiled earlier this week, centre on kickbacks from contracts involving Energoatom, the state nuclear operator and country’s most important electricity provider.
Kvartal 95, the production company behind Zelensky’s popular TV series “Servant of the People,” stated that the investigation is unrelated to the studio’s activities.
Ukraine’s parliament needs to formally approve both their resignations.
The opposition party of former President Petro Poroshenko called for the government to resign.
This week, anti-corruption officials have detained several people in the operation.
Olena Boikova, 57, a retiree, said she felt “indignation” and called those implicated in the scheme “internal enemies”.
Ordering the ministers to step down, Zelensky said it was “absolutely unacceptable that there are still some [corruption] schemes in the energy sector” while Ukrainians are suffering daily outages.
Russia has battered Ukraine’s energy grid with nightly drone and missile strikes in what Kyiv calls cynical attacks that seek to plunge millions of Ukrainians into the darkness and cold through the winter.
Scandal presents test for Zelensky
Investigators say the scheme was masterminded by Timur Mindich, a former business associate of Zelensky.
Mindich co-owns the production company Kvartal 95, founded by Zelensky when he was a star comedian before entering politics.
Mindich fled the country shortly before the allegations were announced on Monday, the state border service said.
Zelensky has not commented on Mindich’s role in the scheme, but Prime Minister Svyrydenko said she was imposing personal sanctions on him and another businessman charged, Oleksandr Tsukerman.
Kvartal 95, which produced Zelensky’s “Servant of the People” TV series, said the probe was not “related to the work of the studio”.
The scandal presents a major test for Zelensky, who faces accusations of centralising power and silencing critics after the Russian invasion.
Earlier this year, there was a massive backlash from the public and in Brussels over attempts to strip the independence of the two anti-corruption bodies that are investigating and prosecuting this case.
