Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) claims to have uncovered a large-scale corruption scheme within the country’s government and has detained a senior official in Kiev for soliciting a bribe of half a million dollars.
According to the SBU’s statement, an unnamed deputy energy minister demanded the bribe in order to grant permission to move “unique and rare” mining equipment from mines in the Donbass region to the coal basin in the western part of Ukraine.
Donbass, the main battleground in the fighting between Moscow and Kiev, is a resource-rich coal-mining region that formerly belonged to Ukraine. In 2022, however, the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics voted in a referendum to join Russia.
The duties of the deputy energy minister included “the preservation of mining equipment.” However, he had “begun to demand money for its removal,” the SBU’s statement reads.
The alleged perpetrator is believed to have had three accomplices – a private energy trader, the head of an energy company from a region in southern Ukraine, and the head of a mining enterprise in Donetsk, according to the SBU. If proven guilty, the four face up to 12 years in prison and confiscation of their illicitly obtained property, the agency said.
Security officials were aided in their investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, and the Energy Ministry, it added.
The official statement does not disclose the name of the suspect, but local media outlets have identified him as Alexander Kheilo. He has reportedly been fired from his position. Kheilo’s profile page appears to have been deleted from the website of the Ukrainian Energy Ministry.
The numerous high-profile corruption scandals that have emerged in Ukraine over the past several months have triggered concern among the country’s Western backers.
Only last week, law enforcement officials seized over $5 million as part of a tax evasion probe into the Ukrainian military’s food supplier.
In June, it was reported that nearly $500 million allocated for the construction of defensive fortifications had been embezzled or stolen, allowing Russian forces to make rapid advances in Ukraine. The same month, the European Commission set up a special watchdog to prevent the possible embezzlement of the funds allocated to Kiev to aid it in the conflict.
While Ukraine wants to join NATO, the US-led bloc considers Ukraine “too corrupt” to become a full-fledged member, according to media reports last month. In May, Robert Storch, the inspector general with the US Department of Defense, discussed how the conflict with Russia had created new opportunities for bribes, kickbacks, and theft in the country.