Ukraine’s Zelensky fires top aide as office faces corruption investigation

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fired one of his most senior officials on Wednesday as corruption investigators named a deputy head of the presidential office among the suspects in a money-laundering case.

The stunning developments came a day after Ukraine’s recently fired defence minister demanded national elections, despite Russia’s more than four-year-old invasion. Zelensky has maintained that such a ballot is not allowed under wartime laws.

Although Zelensky was not implicated in the corruption investigation, it threatened to pull him into another political crisis and provide another test of his resilience.

Investigators gave few details of the probe. It has identified a group of people alleged to have laundered 150 million hryvnias (US$3.4 million) to pay bail for a defendant in a major corruption case last year, according to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau.

That case, involving the state-owned nuclear power company, brought the resignations of Ukraine’s justice and energy ministers.

The latest suspects included a former lawmaker, the chairperson of a state bank’s board and the head of the bank’s supervisory board, as well as a deputy head of the presidential office, the agency said.