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Kyiv
\n Reuters
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Ukraine\u2019s anti-corruption bodies said on Saturday they had uncovered a major graft scheme that procured military drones and signal jamming systems at inflated prices, two days after the agencies\u2019 independence was restored following major protests.\n <\/p>\n
\n The independence of Ukraine\u2019s anti-graft investigators and prosecutors, NABU and SAPO, was reinstated by parliament on Thursday after a move to take it away resulted in the country\u2019s biggest demonstrations since Russia\u2019s invasion in 2022.\n <\/p>\n
\n In a statement published by both agencies on social media, NABU and SAPO said they had caught a sitting lawmaker, two local officials and an unspecified number of national guard personnel taking bribes. None of them were identified in the statement.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe essence of the scheme was to conclude state contracts with supplier companies at deliberately inflated prices,\u201d it said, adding that the offenders had received kickbacks of up to 30% of a contract\u2019s cost. Four people had been arrested.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere can only be zero tolerance for corruption, clear teamwork to expose corruption and, as a result, a just sentence,\u201d Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram.\n <\/p>\n
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\n Zelensky, who has far-reaching wartime presidential powers and still enjoys broad approval among Ukrainians, was forced into a rare political about-face when his attempt to bring NABU and SAPO under the control of his prosecutor-general sparked the first nationwide protests of the war.\n <\/p>\n
\n Zelensky subsequently said that he had heard the people\u2019s anger, and submitted a bill restoring the agencies\u2019 former independence, which was voted through by parliament on Thursday.\n <\/p>\n
\n Ukraine\u2019s European allies praised the move, having voiced concerns about the original stripping of the agencies\u2019 status.\n <\/p>\n
\n Top European officials had told Zelensky that Ukraine was jeopardizing its bid for European Union membership by curbing the powers of its anti-graft authorities.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt is important that anti-corruption institutions operate independently, and the law adopted on Thursday guarantees them every opportunity for a real fight against corruption,\u201d Zelensky wrote on Saturday after meeting the heads of the agencies, who briefed him on the latest investigation.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facebook Tweet Email Link Kyiv Reuters \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Ukraine\u2019s anti-corruption bodies said on Saturday they had uncovered a major…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,299,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-312888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114961286957877360","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}