Ukraine’s new defense minister vows to tackle corruption, anti-graft chief says

VILNIUS - Ukraine's new defense minister has pledged to swiftly eradicate widespread corruption within the ministry, the top anti-corruption officer said, emphasizing a strong relationship and trust in him.

"We have a good cooperation with the new staff of Ministry of Defense and he promised us to close some very usual corruption practices in this ministry during a short period of time. And we're giving our expertise to him how to do it. So now I'm really optimistic about reforms in Ministry of Defense," Semen Kryvonos, director of Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau, said in an interview during his visit to Vilnius.

He stressed that despite the classification of some energy and defense procurements and difficulties in obtaining data, Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau is strengthening corruption prevention, particularly in the defense sector.

"So we've changed our procedures and approaches in identifying corruption practices in defense, and we already have huge results. So despite the lack of transparency, at the same time we've increased the work in this sphere to avoid wrongdoing in defense because it's crucial for our country, for survival," the head of Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau noted.

The Ukrainian parliament appointed Mykhailo Fedorov as defense minister in mid-January. He previously served as deputy prime minister and minister of digital transformation. Before him, Denys Shmyhal led the Ministry of Defense for less than six months; parliament approved Shmyhal as energy minister in January on their second attempt.