The scandal comes at a precarious time for Kyiv, with the United States and its allies stepping up their supplies of military and humanitarian aid as the war with Moscow nears the one-year mark. Ukraine is also seeking to join the European Union and NATO and will be hoping the wartime purge will help those bids and won’t boost the Kremlin’s efforts to undermine its reputation.
“Any internal problems that interfere with the state are being cleaned up and will be cleaned up. This is only fair, it is necessary for our protection, and it helps our rapprochement with the European institutions,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Tuesday.