Ukraine billionaire among targets in corruption raids

High-profile oligarch hor Kolomoisky who has denied any wrongdoing is a former political ally of President Zelensky

- CHRIS STEVENSON

Ukraine has launched a fresh wave of high-profile anticorruption raids, including the security services searching the home of one of the country's most prominent billionaires, Ihor Kolomoisky.

The SBU security service said it had uncovered the embezzlement of more than $1bn (£880bn) at Ukraine's biggest oil company, Ukrnafta, and its biggest refiner, Ukrtatnafta. Mr Kolomoisky, who has long denied wrongdoing and was not mentioned in the SBU statement, once held stakes in both firms, which Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky ordered seized by the state in November under martial law. Mr Kolomoisky is a former political ally of Mr Zelensky.

The raid comes before a summit with the European Union at the end of the week, and reflects a determination by Kyiv to demonstrate that it can be a steward of billions of dollars in Western aid and shed a reputation for endemic corruption.

"If anyone isn't ready for change, then the state itself will come and help them change," said the head of Mr Zelensky's party in parliament, David Arakhamia, on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukraine has secured huge pledges of weapons from the West in recent weeks offering new capabilities - the latest expected this week to include rockets from the United States that would nearly double the firing range of Ukrainian forces.

Beyond the raid on Mr Kolomoisky's house in Dnipro, separate raids were carried out at the tax office, and the home of Arsen Avakov, who led Ukraine's police force as interior minister from 2014 to 2021. Mr Avakov, told Ukrainian media that his home had been searched as part of an inquiry into Ukraine's purchase of Airbus helicopters six years ago. He was quoted as saying all the contracts had been approved at the time.