{"id":30400,"date":"2026-08-19T11:28:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T11:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/30400\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T11:28:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T11:28:15","slug":"zelenskys-office-faces-corruption-probe-a-day-after-fired-defence-minister-called-for-wartime-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/30400\/","title":{"rendered":"Zelensky\u2019s office faces corruption probe a day after fired defence minister called for wartime elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky delivers a speech at the National Military Memorial Cemetery outside of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday.Valentyn Ogirenko\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies announced Wednesday that they are investigating senior officials in President Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s office, a day after the country\u2019s recently fired defence minister called for national elections despite the ongoing fight against Russia\u2019s invasion.<\/p>\n

The political drama was an unwelcome distraction for Zelensky as Ukraine\u2019s war with its bigger neighbour extends into its fifth year.<\/p>\n

Investigators are conducting an operation to expose a criminal organization allegedly led by a sitting and a former lawmaker, involving senior officials from the presidential office and other individuals, according to a joint statement from Ukraine\u2019s National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Further details would be released later, the agencies said in a joint statement.<\/p>\n

The revelation brought another test of Zelensky\u2019s political resilience. Last year, his chief of staff Andriy Yermak resigned and was later named as a suspect in a major graft probe in the biggest threat to Zelensky\u2019s government since Russia\u2019s invasion in February, 2022.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s former defence minister calls for wartime elections<\/a><\/p>\n

Zelensky is already under pressure over his firing last month of defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov, one of the longest-standing members of his team and a close ally since he helped Zelensky win the 2019 presidential election. <\/p>\n

Zelensky, seeking to reconcile tensions between the defence ministry\u2019s young and tech-savvy innovators and Ukraine\u2019s seasoned, Soviet-trained battlefield leaders, risked angering both sides by reshuffling his wartime leadership. He ousted both Fedorov, whose changes to military procurement aimed to stamp out corruption, and commander-in-chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi.<\/p>\n

The move sparked days of street protests in support of Fedorov. For Zelensky, it was the second time in a year that a wartime decision triggered a strong public backlash, after he moved in mid-2025 to curb the powers of anti-corruption agencies.<\/p>\n

Ukraine’s recently ousted defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, called for elections in an address on Tuesday, stating that the nation faced a crisis of governance.<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/p>\n

Fedorov, in a video address posted to YouTube late Tuesday, called for elections to be held in Ukraine in a bombshell statement that appeared to directly confront Zelensky, who says a ballot can\u2019t be held under the martial law that is currently in place due to the war.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must find a legal, safe and realistic mechanism that will allow Ukraine to restore a full democratic process even amid a prolonged war,\u201d Fedorov said.<\/p>\n

He said Ukraine is facing a systemic crisis in how it is governed, arguing that the current system is oriented toward protecting itself and resisting change. He also condemned corruption among officials without naming anyone, saying it had weakened Ukraine\u2019s ability to fight the war. <\/p>\n

Zelensky\u2019s office did not immediately comment on Fedorov\u2019s address. <\/p>\n

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has balked at negotiating a peace deal directly with Zelensky, says the Ukrainian president is an illegitimate leader because his term expired in 2024.<\/p>\n

Fedorov published his speech hours after Ukraine\u2019s Parliament received a submission from Zelensky nominating Yevhenii Khmara as the new defence minister. <\/p>\n

Lawmakers were due to debate the president\u2019s candidate on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A resident clears debris at the site of a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Wednesday.Stringer\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Domestic political noise comes after Ukrainian successes in the war<\/p>\n

The political disarray comes after recent successes in the war for Ukraine. Using its innovative drone technology, it has repeatedly hit Russian oil facilities, causing fuel shortages. It has also shocked the Russian public by striking warehouses of Wildberries, Russia\u2019s biggest online retailer, and stalled front-line advances by Russia\u2019s bigger army.<\/p>\n

But Zelensky has been unable to get traction in U.S.-led peace efforts, and Ukraine is at the mercy of Russia\u2019s ballistic missiles because more U.S.-made Patriot interceptors aren\u2019t available due to low international stockpiles.<\/p>\n

In its latest strike on oil facilities, a drone hit an oil refinery in Ufa in Russia\u2019s Bashkortostan, its Gov. Radiy Khabirov was quoted as saying by Russia\u2019s state news agency RIA Novosti.<\/p>\n

Ukraine aims drone blitz at Moscow, while Russia strikes Ukrainian village<\/a><\/p>\n

The city of Ufa is located roughly 1,300 kilometres east of the border with Ukraine. There are three oil refineries in Ufa, and all three have been attacked before.<\/p>\n

Russian air defences overnight intercepted 453 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions, as well as occupied Crimea and the Black Sea, the Defence Ministry in Moscow said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, a Russian drone attacked a minibus in the southern Kherson region on Wednesday morning, killing four people, said Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson regional military administration. <\/p>\n

Four women were also wounded in the strike and were hospitalized, he said.<\/p>\n

Also, a Russian drone struck a civilian car in Kherson city, the region\u2019s capital, on Wednesday, killing a woman, said Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson regional military administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky delivers a speech at the National Military Memorial Cemetery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[273,255,274,247,245,275,272,244,262,263,258,246,243,268,270,267,261,253,286,248,249,260,256,257,251,276,252,281,282,284,279,283,277,280,250,265,266,79,264,278,254,269,271,259,85,81,285],"class_list":["post-30400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}