Kyiv's August 2023 recruitment dismissals and defence procurement questions
A look back at the corruption-related developments in Ukraine's defence sector reported in the days up to 16 August 2023.
What was the state of Ukraine's fight against corruption in its defence sector on 16 August 2023? The reports of the preceding days pointed to pressure on two fronts: military recruitment and procurement.
On 11 August 2023, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the dismissal of all heads of regional military recruitment centres, citing corruption. The decision applied to every regional head rather than to individual officials.
The next day, 12 August 2023, the investigative news website Dzerkalo Tyzhnia published documents indicating that the Ministry of Defence had overpaid for summer camouflage kits that were bought as winter coats for troops. The documents were suspected to be linked to an investigation that Ukraine's security services had launched in June into Vyacheslav Shapovalov, the former Deputy Defence Minister.
A wider backdrop
Also on 12 August 2023, in the continuing Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu inspected the Northern Fleet and visited a Rosatom nuclear weapons test site in Novaya Zemlya.
Taken together, the reports from 11 and 12 August 2023 showed integrity questions in Ukraine's military administration being raised at once through a presidential personnel decision and through investigative journalism, while the war continued.
