Ukraine detains agriculture minister in $7m corruption case
Al Jazeera
Ukraine has pledged to bolster its anticorruption efforts as part of its bid for European Union membership.
Ukraine’s Agriculture Minister Mykola Solsky has been detained on suspicion of being involved in a multimillion-dollar landgrab scheme involving state property, according to prosecutors.
An anticorruption court ordered Solsky to be held in custody until June 24, with bail set at 75.7 million hryvnias ($1.9m), prosecutors said on Friday. He could face up to 12 years in jail if convicted.
Solsky is accused of illegally seizing state-owned land worth 291 million hryvnias ($7.36m) and trying to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.8m).
The allegations relate to events between 2017 and 2021, before he started as Ukraine’s wartime agriculture minister in March 2022, shortly after the start of Russia’s invasion.
Under the alleged scheme, the land was illegally taken from two state firms and transferred to war veterans on the condition they lease it to some private firms, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau said.
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