The removal of Ukraine’s minister of defence after a flurry of reports of graft and financial mismanagement in his department underscores a pivotal challenge for President Volodymyr Zelensky’s wartime leadership: stamping out the corruption that had been widespread in Ukraine for years.

Official corruption was a topic that had been mostly taboo throughout the first year of the war, as Ukrainians rallied around their government in a fight for national survival. But Zelensky’s announcement Sunday night that he was replacing the defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, elevated the issue to the highest level of Ukrainian politics.

It comes at a pivotal moment in the war, as Ukraine prosecutes a counteroffensive in the country’s south and east that relies heavily on western allies for military assistance. These allies have, since the beginning of the war, pressured Zelensky’s government to ensure that Ukrainian officials were not siphoning off some of the billions of dollars in aid that was flowing into Kyiv.

Just last week, the US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, met three high-ranking Ukrainian officials to discuss efforts to stamp out corruption.

Zelensky has responded to the pressure from allies and criticism at home with a flurry of anti-corruption initiatives. The most controversial has been a proposal to use martial law powers to punish corruption as treason.

Reznikov, who has held a range of positions during Zelensky’s tenure, submitted his resignation Monday morning. He has not been personally implicated in the allegations of mismanaged military contracts. But the widening investigations at his ministry posed the first significant challenge for the government on anti-corruption measures since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

“The question here is, ‘Where is the money?’” said Daria Kaleniuk, the executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre in Ukraine, a group dedicated to rooting out public graft. “Corruption can kill.”

New York Times News Service