Several high-ranking suspects pocketed up to 30% in kickbacks on drone and electronic warfare contracts, anti-corruption watchdogs claim
Several senior Ukrainian officials have been detained on suspicion of receiving up to 30% in kickbacks from military contracts, anti-corruption agencies have announced. The arrests came just days after Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky was forced to abandon his attempts to restrict the independence of anti-graft agencies.
In a statement on Saturday, the National Anti Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) said they had uncovered a “large scale” corruption scheme involving contracts for the purchase of drones and electronic warfare systems for the Ukrainian army.
Ukrainian media has identified three of the four suspects – Aleksey Kuznetsov, an MP representing Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, former Lugansk Governor Sergey Gayday, and Rubezhansky district head Andrey Yurchenko.
Between 2024 and 2025, members of the group allegedly created a scheme to systematically misappropriate budget funds allocated by local governments for defense needs. One part of the scheme involved awarding a contract for electronic warfare systems at an intentionally inflated price, with the group receiving illegal benefits worth 30% of the contract amount.
A separate contract for FPV drones, worth around $240,000, was allegedly overpriced by around $80,000, with the company’s officials later handing over kickbacks to members of the group, the investigators said.
The same day, Zelensky stated that he had met with the heads of NABU and SAPO to discuss the scandal, calling it “absolutely immoral” and thanked the agencies for their good work.
Two weeks earlier Zelensky had attempted to bring both bodies under government control only for street protests to force him to sign off on their independence last week.
