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Zelensky signs decree dismissing all military enlistment office chiefs

by Elsa Court and The Kyiv Independent news desk August 17, 2023 5:16 PM 2 min read
President Volodymyr Zelensky delivers an address on Aug. 11, 2023. (Photo: Presidential Office)
This audio is created with AI assistance

President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on Aug. 17, dismissing all heads of military enlistment offices from their posts. The measure comes into force immediately.

Zelensky said on Aug. 11 that the heads of all regional military recruitment offices across Ukraine would be dismissed after a nationwide inspection revealed multiple violations, including corruption, power abuse, and fraud.

The decision was approved at a meeting on Aug. 11 of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.

“This system should be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery in wartime is treason,” Zelensky then said in a video address.

The fired officials will be replaced by officers who have had battlefield experience after they undergo an inspection by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, will be responsible for the plan's implementation.

Ukrainian authorities began the nationwide inspection of military recruitment offices in late June after journalists discovered that the family of Yevhen Borysov, the former head of the Odesa Oblast military enlistment office, had purchased property worth $4.5 million in Spain during the full-scale war.

Some 112 cases regarding abuses by military enlistment offices have been brought to investigation since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, the State Bureau of Investigation said on Aug. 8.

Over 110 investigations into military enlistment offices opened by Investigation Bureau since February 2022
The State Bureau of Investigation has announced that 112 cases regarding abuses by military enlistment offices have been brought to investigation since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.


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