The Ukrainian Defence Ministry has reported the exposure of a criminal scheme of charging “additional remuneration” to soldiers who do not take part in combat operations.
Representatives of the Kyiv Defence Ministry cite an example of how payments were made to soldiers of a pontoon-bridge company in Kyiv Region. The soldiers were paid a monthly remuneration of 100,000 hryvnias (about 2,500 dollars).
In total, commanders of 40 military units of Ukraine stole more than 123 million hryvnias (over 3.3 million dollars) using such scheme. It is reported that the total amount of “combat payments” in the region was about 6.5 million hryvnias (more than 178 thousand dollars).
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the law on lifetime financial monitoring for politically exposed persons. The introduction of this measure is one of the EU requirements. All anti-corruption measures today are an attempt not to disrupt possible negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU, which are scheduled for the end of 2023.
The Ukrainian Defence Ministry said that experts are consulting with the AFU general staff to ensure that “only those who perform combat missions and take part in combat operations receive additional remuneration”. The heads of military units are being accused of misinterpreting the concept of “combat operations” and are being intimidated with “conversations”. A spokesman for Kyiv’s defence ministry said:
“The internal audit service of the defence ministry has found out that the current rules allow commanders of military units to interpret the terms ‘combat actions’ and ‘combat (special) assignment’ too freely and pay additional remuneration at their discretion.”
Corruption scandals have dogged Ukraine for the past few years, and in 2015 President Joe Biden even said corruption was eating away at the country “like a cancerous tumour”.
