{"id":568676,"date":"2025-11-14T00:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T00:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/568676\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T00:01:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T00:01:09","slug":"eu-renews-demand-that-ukraine-crack-down-on-corruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/568676\/","title":{"rendered":"EU renews demand that Ukraine crack down on corruption"},"content":{"rendered":"

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 European Union officials warned Ukraine on Thursday that it must keep cracking down on graft in the wake of a major corruption scandal<\/a> that could hurt the country\u2019s ability to attract financial help. But they also offered assurances that aid will continue to flow as Kyiv strains to hold back Russia\u2019s invasion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz<\/a> stressed European concerns about corruption when he spoke by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a>, whose administration has been engulfed by the scandal involving embezzlement and kickbacks at the state-owned nuclear power company. It\u2019s fast becoming one of the most significant government crises since the full-scale invasion, with media reports implicating a close associate of Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n

Merz \u201cunderlined the German government\u2019s expectation that Ukraine press ahead energetically with fighting corruption and further reforms, particularly in the area of the rule of law,\u201d his office said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy, the statement said, promised \u201cfull transparency, long-term support for the independent anti-corruption authorities and quick further measures in order to win back the confidence of the Ukrainian population, European partners and international donors.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, a European Commission<\/a> spokesperson said that uncovering the alleged kickback scheme demonstrated that Ukraine\u2019s efforts to fight corruption are working as the country strives to meet the standards for EU membership.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis investigation shows that anti-corruption bodies are in place and functioning in Ukraine,\u201d Guillaume Mercier said in Brussels.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me stress that the fight against corruption is key for a country to join the EU. It requires continuous efforts to guarantee a strong capacity to combat corruption and a respect for the rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graft probe raises questions about senior officials<\/p>\n

After Zelenskyy\u2019s justice and energy ministers quit Wednesday amid the investigation into energy sector graft, the government fired the vice president of Energoatom, the state-owned nuclear power company believed by investigators to be at the center of the kickback scheme.<\/p>\n

The EU and other foreign partners have poured money into Ukraine\u2019s energy sector. Russia has relentlessly bombarded<\/a> the power grid, which requires repeated repairs.<\/p>\n

The heads of Energoatom\u2019s finance, legal and procurement departments and a consultant to Energoatom\u2019s president were also dismissed, Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said late Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the full-scale war, when the enemy is destroying our energy infrastructure every day and the country is living under power outage schedules, any form of corruption is unacceptable,\u201d Svyrydenko said Thursday in a video statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the most difficult times, our strength lies in unity. Eradicating corruption is a matter of honor and dignity,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Tymur Mindich, a co-owner of Zelenskyy\u2019s Kvartal 95 media production company, is the conspiracy\u2019s suspected mastermind. His whereabouts are unknown.<\/p>\n

The investigation has prompted questions about what the country\u2019s highest officials knew of the scheme. It has also awakened memories of Zelenskyy\u2019s attempt last summer to curtail Ukraine\u2019s anti-corruption watchdogs. He backtracked after widespread street protests in Ukraine and pressure from the European Union to address entrenched corruption.<\/p>\n

A Kyiv court has begun hearing evidence from anti-corruption watchdogs. Those watchdogs \u2014 the same agencies Zelenskyy sought to weaken earlier this year \u2014 conducted a 15-month investigation, including 1,000 hours of wiretaps, that resulted in the detention of five people<\/a> and implicated another seven in the scheme that allegedly earned about $100 million.<\/p>\n

EU promises more money for Ukraine<\/p>\n

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU would disburse Thursday a 6 billion euros ($7 billion) loan to Ukraine and promised more money for Kyiv.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will cover the financial needs of Ukraine for the next two years,\u201d she said in a speech to the European Parliament.<\/p>\n

The EU is looking into how it can come up with more money for Ukraine, either by seizing frozen Russian assets, raising funds on capital markets or having some of the 27 EU nations raise the money themselves.<\/p>\n

Russian President Vladimir Putin \u201cthinks he can outlast us\u201d in the battle over Ukraine\u2019s future, von der Leyen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd this is a clear miscalculation,\u201d she said. \u201cNow is therefore the moment to come, with a new impetus, to unlock Putin\u2019s cynical attempt to buy time and bring him to the negotiation table.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ukraine fires its Flamingo cruise missile<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine\u2019s top military commander, visited units fighting to hold Pokrovsk<\/a> in the eastern Donetsk region and coordinate operations in person, he said on the messaging app Telegram.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian troops are locked in street battles with Russian forces in the city and fighting to prevent becoming surrounded as the Kremlin\u2019s war of attrition slowly grinds across the countryside.<\/p>\n

Syrskyi said the key goals are to regain control of certain areas of the city, as well as protect logistical routes and create new ones so that troops can be supplied and the wounded can be evacuated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no question of Russian control over the city of Pokrovsk or of the operational encirclement of Ukraine\u2019s defense forces in the area,\u201d Syrskyi said.<\/p>\n

In other developments Thursday, Ukraine used a new domestically produced cruise missile<\/a> as well as other weapons to strike \u201cseveral dozen objects\u201d in Russian-occupied territories and inside Russia itself, according to the general staff.<\/p>\n

The FP-5 missile, which Ukrainian officials say can fly 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) and land within 14 meters (45 feet) of its target, is one of the largest such missiles in the world, delivering a payload of 1,150 kilograms (2,535 pounds), according to experts. It is commonly known as a Flamingo missile because initial versions came out pink after a manufacturing error.<\/p>\n

In Crimea, which Russia has illegally annexed, Ukraine\u2019s general staff said its forces struck an oil terminal, a helicopter base, a drone storage site and an air defense radar system. In occupied parts of the southern Zaporizhzhia region, an oil storage depot and two Russian command centers were hit.<\/p>\n

The general staff gave no details about what was targeted on Russian soil.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press Writer Sam McNeil in Brussels contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow AP\u2019s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/russia-ukraine<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 European Union officials warned Ukraine on Thursday that it must keep cracking down on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[44034,2575,2000,299,1699,1945,4179,10680,180537,8615,7661,24392,657,7662,1220,333,2601,7660,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-568676","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-bribery","9":"tag-corruption","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european-union","13":"tag-friedrich-merz","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-government-and-politics","16":"tag-guillaume-mercier","17":"tag-international-news","18":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","19":"tag-scandals","20":"tag-ukraine","21":"tag-ukraine-government","22":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","23":"tag-vladimir-putin","24":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","25":"tag-war-and-unrest","26":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115545118614281571","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568676","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=568676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}