"Ukraine's public life has been deeply permeated by corruption for years starting from government officials and law enforcement officers to those in the corporate sector," V4NA wrote, drawing attention to an open letter by the Ukrainian Employers' Association addressed to President Volodymyr Zelensky. The organization representing Ukrainian entrepreneurs has called on the president to "take action against the unprecedented corruption."
As the news portal points out, "there have been numerous reports in recent years regarding the deep-rooted corruption in both the political and the business sector of the country."
For example, the Ukrainian Employers' Association is calling for urgent intervention to investigate corruption among military officials, judges and public notaries, which it says has "gone beyond all limits."
They say the unprecedented levels of corruption undermine Ukraine's defense capabilities.
The association says that it's ready to disclose specific names of coordinators and executives who are putting pressure on businesses.
They also proposed that during the state of war, the influence of state power structures in corporate situations not related to national security should be prohibited by law, V4NA writes.
Anyone who profits from extortion and sells the honor of a uniform or a judge's robe for a bribe in wartime must be held accountable.
– reads the open letter from the 42 entrepreneurs.
It is noteworthy that the trial against Andriy Naumov began in March in Serbia. The 41-year-old Ukrainian national is accused of money laundering by the Chief Prosecutor's Office. The former Ukrainian secret service officer was arrested on June 7 last year, when authorities searched his car at the Serbia-North Macedonia border and found a large amount of money and precious stones in it. As previously reported by V4NA, Naumov's car was found with 608,000 euros and 125,000 dollars in cash, as well as two emeralds, none of which he been declared to the authorities.
Andriy Naumov has held several high-ranking positions in Ukraine. He worked for the Ukrainian State Prosecutor General's Office, at the state agency supervising Chernobyl (DAZV), and he left his country shortly before the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war.
President Volodymyr Zelensky stripped Mr Naumov of his post and called him a traitor after it emerged that he had been arrested in Serbia, the Nova news portal writes.
Since then, more details have emerged regarding Mr Naumov's trip and his arrest in June last year. His lawyer alleged that the suspect was only passing through Serbia and was on his way to Turkey to visit his family, who had already moved there.
In 2021, even the European Commission reported systemic corruption in Ukraine, V4NA writes. The Commission has introduced a number of initiatives to reduce the potential for graft and proposed a number of measures, but no progress had been made.
The news agency points out that the European Commission's position appears to have changed. It is "much more cautious in its messages" regarding corruption in Ukraine, because Brussels is "desperate to integrate Ukraine into the European Union."
