Ukraine detains top defence officials in graft case

KIEV: Ukraine’s anti-corruption bureau said on Wednesday it had detained a deputy defence minister and another top military official for allegedly embezzling millions in state funding through an illegal oil-purchase scheme. The announcement was the highest-profile indictment against any official since the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) launched a graft case against the now-deposed tax service chief Roman Nasirov in March.

NABU did not identify the two defence officials but said the fraud had cost the budget 149 million hryvnias ($5.6 million / 4.7 million euros at today’s exchange rate) in 2016. The bureau said the arrangement involved an oil purchase contract that was later revised to inflate the original price by 16 percent to benefit the unnamed supplier.

"NABU detectives and special anti-corruption prosecutors have detained two suspected culprits -- a deputy defence minister of Ukraine and the director of the state resource procurement and supply department of the Ukrainian defence ministry," NABU said in a statement. Ukraine’s defence ministry said an investigation into two officials whose titles matched those named by NABU was in progress but provided no other details.

Corruption has long ravaged the crisis-torn former Soviet republic and been a top concern of both Ukraine’s foreign partners and global financial support organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF).