EU renews demand that Ukraine crack down on corruption in wake of major energy scandal

By ILLIA NOVIKOV KYIV Ukraine AP European Union administrators warned Ukraine on Thursday that it must keep cracking down on graft in the wake of a major corruption outrage that could hurt the country s ability to attract financial help But they also offered assurances that aid will continue to flow as Kyiv strains to hold back Russia s invasion Related Articles Israeli settlers torch a mosque and scrawl hateful messages despite official condemnation Currently in History November Hundreds of men and boys killed in coal mine fire More than nonprofits receive M for global women s vitality from Melinda French Gates Sotheby s says a diamond brooch lost by Napoleon as his forces fled Waterloo sells for million Zelenskyy seeks dismissal of justice and strength ministers in Ukrainian corruption probe German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stressed European concerns about corruption when he spoke by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy whose administration has been engulfed by the embarrassment involving embezzlement and kickbacks at the state-owned nuclear power company It s fast becoming one of the greater part substantial regime crises since Moscow s full-scale invasion with media reports implicating a close associate of Zelenskyy Merz underlined the German administration s expectation that Ukraine press ahead energetically with fighting corruption and further reforms particularly in the area of the rule of law his office declared in a message Zelenskyy the comment announced promised full transparency long-term backing for the independent anti-corruption bureaucrats and quick further measures in order to win back the confidence of the Ukrainian population European partners and international donors At the same time a European Commission spokesperson announced that uncovering the alleged kickback scheme demonstrated that Ukraine s efforts to fight corruption are working as the country strives to meet the standards for EU membership This research shows that anti-corruption bodies are in place and functioning in Ukraine Guillaume Mercier announced in Brussels Let me stress that the fight against corruption is key for a country to join the EU It requires continuous efforts to guarantee a strong maximum to combat corruption and a respect for the rule of law Graft probe raises questions about senior personnel After Zelenskyy s justice and potency ministers quit Wednesday amid the research into potential sector graft the establishment fired the vice president of Energoatom the state-owned nuclear power company considered by investigators to be at the center of the kickback scheme The EU and other foreign partners have poured money into Ukraine s force sector Russia has relentlessly bombarded the power grid which requires repeated repairs The heads of Energoatom s finance legal and procurement departments and a consultant to Energoatom s president were also dismissed Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko revealed late Wednesday During the full-scale war when the enemy is destroying our vigor infrastructure every day and the country is living under power outage schedules any form of corruption is unacceptable Svyrydenko disclosed Thursday in a video comment In the greater part complex times our strength lies in unity Eradicating corruption is a matter of honor and dignity she disclosed Tymur Mindich a co-owner of Zelenskyy s Kvartal media production company is the conspiracy s suspected mastermind His whereabouts are unknown FILE Herman Halushchenko Ukraine s vitality minister speaks with the Associated Press during an interview in Kyiv Ukraine April AP Photo Efrem Lukatsky File FILE Ukraine Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Materials Svitlana Grynchuk speaks during a plenary session at the COP U N Surroundings Summit Nov in Baku Azerbaijan AP Photo Sergei Grits File In this image made from video provided by Russian Defense Ministry Press Amenity on Wednesday Nov a Russian Grad self-propelled mm multiple rocket launcher fires towards Ukrainian positions on an undisclosed location in Ukraine Russian Defense Ministry Press Amenity via AP In this image made from video provided by Russian Defense Ministry Press Organization on Friday Nov Russian soldiers secure an area near a Russian Grad self-propelled mm multiple rocket launcher prepared to fire towards Ukrainian positions on an undisclosed location in Ukraine Russian Defense Ministry Press Arrangement via AP Show Caption of FILE Herman Halushchenko Ukraine s force minister speaks with the Associated Press during an interview in Kyiv Ukraine April AP Photo Efrem Lukatsky File Expand The study has prompted questions about what the country s highest representatives knew of the scheme It has also awakened memories of Zelenskyy s attempt last summer to curtail Ukraine s anti-corruption watchdogs He backtracked after widespread street protests in Ukraine and pressure from the European Union to address entrenched corruption A Kyiv court has begun hearing evidence from anti-corruption watchdogs Those watchdogs the same agencies Zelenskyy sought to weaken earlier this year conducted a -month study including hours of wiretaps that resulted in the detention of five people and implicated another seven in the scheme that allegedly earned about million EU promises more money for Ukraine European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated the EU would disburse Thursday a billion euros billion loan to Ukraine and promised more money for Kyiv We will cover the financial necessities of Ukraine for the next two years she reported in a speech to the European Parliament The EU is looking into how it can come up with more money for Ukraine either by seizing frozen Russian assets raising funds on capital markets or having particular of the EU nations raise the money themselves Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks he can outlast us in the battle over Ukraine s future nearly four years after Russia s invasion of its neighbor von der Leyen stated And this is a clear miscalculation she disclosed Now is therefore the moment to come with a new impetus to unlock Putin s cynical attempt to buy time and bring him to the negotiation table Ukraine fires its Flamingo cruise missile Meanwhile Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi Ukraine s top military commander visited units fighting to hold Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region and coordinate operations in person he announced on the messaging app Telegram Ukrainian troops are locked in street battles with Russian forces in the city and fighting to prevent becoming surrounded as the Kremlin s war of attrition slowly grinds across the countryside Syrskyi commented the key goals are to regain control of certain areas of the city as well as protect logistic routes and create new ones so that troops can be supplied and the wounded can be evacuated There is no question of Russian control over the city of Pokrovsk or of the operational encirclement of Ukraine s defense forces in the area Syrskyi disclosed Also Thursday Ukrainian used a new domestically produced cruise missile as well as other weapons to strike several dozen objects in Russian-occupied territories and inside itself according to the general staff The FP- missile which Ukrainian authorities say can fly miles and land within feet of its target is one of the largest such missiles in the world delivering a payload of pounds according to experts It is commonly known as a Flamingo missile because initial versions came out pink after a manufacturing error In Crimea which Russia has illegally annexed Ukraine s general staff mentioned its forces struck an oil terminal a helicopter base a drone storage site and an air defense radar system In occupied parts of the southern Zaporizhzhia region an oil storage depot and two Russian command centers were hit The general staff gave no details about what was targeted on Russian soil Associated Press Writer Sam McNeil in Brussels contributed to this account Follow AP s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https apnews com hub russia-ukraine