Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) exposed a bribery scheme involving a member of parliament, current and former regional officials, and the National Guard, the agencies announced on Aug. 2.
The officials involved in the plot allegedly appropriated funds intended for the procurement of drones and electronic warfare (EW) equipment, NABU reported.
The report comes shortly after President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law passed by the parliament on July 31 restoring the independence of the two agencies — the country’s principal anti-corruption bodies — after revoking their independence a few days earlier. The dismantling of NABU and SAPO sparked large-scale protests and international backlash.
The organized corruption ring exposed on Aug. 2 involved a Ukrainian MP, a former governor of Luhansk Oblast, the current heads of a district and city military administration, the head of a National Guard military unit, and the director of a company that supplies drones, NABU said.
Ukrainian media outlets identified the MP as Oleksii Kuznetsov, a member of Zelensky’s Servant of the People party. Other exposed officials included Serhii Haidai (former Luhansk governor) and Andrii Yurchenko (head of Luhansk Oblast’s Rubizhne district), Ukrainska Pravda reported, citing sources in law enforcement.
The investigation revealed that members of the group systematically appropriated government funds allocated for the military during 2024-2025. The perpetrators also acquired and doled out “unlawful benefits on an especially large scale.”
One of the schemes uncovered by the investigation involved intentionally inflating a state contract for the purchase of EW systems. The officials received a kickback worth 30% of the contract in exchange for inflating the price.
Members of the group employed a similar strategy with a state contract for first-person-view (FPV) drones, the agencies said.
At this time, four people have been detained in connection with the bribery scheme.
David Arakhimia, head of the Servant of the People faction in the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s parliament), said that Kuznetsov would be dismissed from the faction for the duration of the corruption probe.
“We await the court hearing of this case in due course. Those guilty of corruption crimes must be punished fairly, regardless of their status or position,” Arakhamia said.
Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko also announced that the Cabinet of Ministers had convened an extraordinary meeting in response to the investigation. Zelensky later signed an order dismissing Haidai from his post as head of the Mukachevo district administration.
