Klitschko announces dismissals of top Kyiv administration officials over corruption accusations

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced on Feb. 28 that Petro Olenych, the deputy head of the Kyiv City Administration, and several other officials embroiled in a corruption probe would be dismissed.

A day earlier, Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) released recordings of conversations of Kyiv officials taken as part of a sting operation aimed at exposing functionaries involved in corruption in the city's land and budget sectors.

Yurii Leonov, deputy director of the city's special housing fund, and Oleksii Mushta, deputy head of an urban infrastructure management agency, will also be dismissed. Kyiv City Council member and head of the land commission Mykhailo Terentiiev is also to resign, according to Klitschko's statement.

"There will be a reorganization in urban planning and land relations. And not only in these areas. As for the high-profile 'land case,' the city provides law enforcement with all requested documents and facilitates the investigation," Klitschko said.

The suspects reportedly found suitable land plots and registered ownership of buildings that never existed there in the name of controlled entities, according to the investigation. Subsequently, the applications for ownership for the maintenance of these structures were submitted to the city council, which allegedly helped them avoid a fair tender.

On Feb. 7, the High Anti-Corruption Court imposed pre-trial restraints on the Kyiv officials suspected in the case. The court remanded Olenych in custody for two months, until April 6, with the possibility of posting Hr 15 million (nearly $360,000) bail. Olenych was released from the pre-trial detention center on bail on Feb. 21.

Olenych said that his family had borrowed the money for bail and that he would file a motion for suspension from office during the investigation.

On Feb. 10, NABU said the alleged head of the corruption scheme, former Kyiv City Council member Denys Komarnytskyi, was put on the wanted list in Ukraine. Ten people were charged in the case, seven of whom have been detained.