The crime is unclear: Moscow puts Zelensky on the wanted list

Ukraine’s Agriculture Minister Mykola Solsky has been arrested on corruption charges. Ukrainian prosecutors said Friday that Solsky was arrested after being officially named a suspect in a multimillion-dollar corruption investigation. According to it, he is accused of enriching himself by illegally acquiring government land worth around 6.5 million euros before his tenure as a minister.

The court ordered him to be remanded in custody until June 24, the Office of the Public Prosecutor, which specializes in corruption, said. Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency announced on Tuesday that it was investigating Solsky. He submitted his resignation on Thursday.

The charges against him relate to the years 2017 to 2021. At that time, Solsky was not yet a minister, but the head of a large agricultural company and a member of parliament. Solsky was elected to the parliament in Kyiv in 2019 and has only held ministerial posts since 2022.

Separately, prosecutors said they suspended the head of the deputy regional council in Ukraine’s Zaporozhye region from his post for one month. The official was allegedly involved in a bribery scandal worth at least 650,000 hryvnias (about 15,300 euros). The state attorney’s office said the case is still under investigation.

The leadership in Kiev is trying to take more sustainable measures against corruption and bribery in the country – with a view to joining the European Union. Conditions for joining include the fight against corruption. Last year, then-Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov was sacked by President Volodymyr Zelensky amid allegations of corruption in Ukraine’s Defense Ministry. (AP)