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Ukraine sacked more than a dozen senior officials including the governors of several key battleground provinces on Tuesday in the biggest shakeup of warring leaders since Russia invaded last year.
Separately on Tuesday, a long-awaited decision on whether allies can send German-made heavy tanks to Ukraine finally faced Berlin, after Poland said it had sent a formal request to the German government.
US officials said Washington is also moving ahead with supplying some tanks to Kyiv.
Among the Ukrainian officials who resigned or were fired on Tuesday were the governors of Kyiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and adjacent Dnipropetrovsk are now front-line provinces, while Kyiv and Sumy were the main battlegrounds before the war.
The deputy defense minister, the deputy prosecutor, the deputy head of the office of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and two deputy ministers responsible for regional development are among the others who left.
Allegations of corruption
Some, though not all, have been linked to corruption charges. Ukraine has a history of corruption and shaky governance, and is under international pressure to show it can be a reliable steward of billions of dollars in Western aid.
“There have been personnel decisions – some today, some tomorrow – about officials at various levels in ministries and other central government structures, as well as in regions and law enforcement,” Zelenskyy said in a video address overnight.
Zelenskyy aide Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted: “The president sees and hears the public. And immediately responds to the key public demand: justice for all.”
The purge comes two days after a deputy infrastructure minister was arrested and accused of embezzling US$400,000 from a contract to buy generators – one of the first major corruption scandals to become public since the war began 11 months ago.
The Defense Ministry said Deputy Defense Minister Vyacheslav Shapovalov, who was in charge of providing troops, had resigned to maintain credibility after what it called false media allegations of corruption. It followed a newspaper report that the ministry overpaid for food for the troops, which the ministry denied.
The prosecutor’s office did not give a reason for the dismissal of Deputy Prosecutor General Oleksiy Symonenko, who has been under fire in the Ukrainian media for his vacation in Spain. Although Zelenskyy did not name any officials in his address, he announced new restrictions on officials vacationing abroad.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy chief of staff in Zelenskyy’s office, announced his own resignation, also without giving a reason. He has helped run the 2019 presidential election campaign and has more recently played a role in overseeing regional policy.
As the shakeup unfolded in a series of announcements, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told a cabinet meeting that Ukraine had made progress in its anti-corruption campaign.
“This is systematic, consecutive work, which is very necessary for Ukraine and is an integral part of its integration with the EU,” he said.
Decision time in the tank
Poland’s announcement that it has officially requested Berlin’s permission to export German-made tanks to Ukraine appears to leave German Chancellor Olaf Scholz little room to continue to put off the decision in the main debate between the allies how best to support Ukraine.
“I hope this answer from Germany will come soon, because the Germans are delaying, avoiding, acting in a way that is difficult to understand,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said at a press conference. “We can see that they don’t want to help Ukraine defend itself in a broader way.”
A German government spokesman said: “We will consider the process as soon as possible.”
WATCH | Poland says it is ready to send battle tanks to Ukraine:
Poland says it will send German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine regardless of whether Berlin chooses to implement an agreement that could ban exports to third countries.
Two US officials, meanwhile, told Reuters the United States appears to be dropping its opposition to sending some M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. While the Abrams was considered less suitable than the Leopard for Ukraine due to its heavy fuel consumption, the move could encourage Germany to follow suit.
Kyiv has been asking for months for tanks from the West, which it says should give its troops the firepower and mobility to break through Russia’s defense lines and retake control of territory in the east and south.
Scholz’s Social Democrats have held back, wary of moves that could lead Russia to escalate the war, and what it sees as the risk of the NATO alliance being drawn into the conflict.
German Leopards, commissioned by armies across Europe, were considered the best choice, available in large numbers and easy to mount and maintain. But Germany has so far resisted pressure to pledge its own Leopards, and has so far said its ally has not formally sought permission to send its own.
“Germany has received a request for permission to transfer Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine,” Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak wrote on Twitter.
“I also ask the German side to join the coalition of countries that support Ukraine with the Leopard 2 tank. This is our common cause, because the security of all Europe is at stake!”
Germany’s military chief of staff said sending the tanks was a political decision. Senior officials say the choice rests with Scholz and his cabinet.
WATCH | In one region of Ukraine, the school is a makeshift tent with internet:
Young children in the besieged Ukrainian region of Kharkiv have created an outdoor school, as it gives them the key to connecting with teachers: the internet. Much of Kharkiv’s infrastructure has been destroyed by Russian bombs.
“At the end of the day, the decision will definitely be made in the chancellor, with a consensus by the government,” said Tobias Lindner, state secretary at the foreign ministry, at a defense conference in Berlin organized by Handelsblatt.
The front line in the war has been largely frozen in place for two months despite heavy losses on both sides. Russia and Ukraine are both believed to be planning the attack. Ukrainian officials say the coming spring and summer will be decisive.
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