Kiyv: On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree dismissing a senior security official and declared separately that his campaign to purge the government would go on as planned.
In recent weeks, authorities have fired dozens of employees and launched investigations as part of a broad campaign to root out wrongdoing. Ukraine must, according to the EU, combat corruption before it can join the 27-member bloc.
According to a brief decree released by the presidential office, Zelensky removed Ruslan Dziuba from his position as National Guard deputy commander. It did not state why it was moving.
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In his daily video address, Zelensky, who has emphasized the need for the defense ministry in particular to be cleaned up, did not specifically mention Dziuba.
Instead, he claimed that he had spoken with representatives from the law enforcement and defense sectors about how to shield institutions from what he called internal or external attempts to lessen their effectiveness and efficiency.
He made the following statement in reference to the crackdown: "All this activity is not just about specific episodes or criminal proceedings... the state will continue to modernize the institutions themselves. It is necessary to ensure the integrity of state structures' work.
The defense minister of Ukraine stated on Thursday that he had "zero tolerance" for corruption and that hundreds of officials at the ministry or in the armed forces had been disciplined last year as a result of internal audits.
While the fiercest fighting was taking place in the cities of Vuhledar and Maryinka, Ukraine's top military commander claimed on Saturday that the nation's forces were maintaining defense along the frontline in Donetsk, including of the besieged town of Bakhmut.
According to Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, head of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Russia conducts about 50 attacks per day in Donetsk, a region in Ukraine's southeast that Moscow has been attempting to completely annex.
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After speaking with US General Mark Milley, Zaluzhnyi sent a Telegram message stating, "Fierce fighting continues in the area of Vuhledar and Maryinka." We consistently maintain the defense. We have been successful in regaining lost positions and gaining ground in some parts of the front.
The gains were not identified by Zaluzhnyi. In an effort to "stabilize" the frontline near the town, he continued, Ukraine is maintaining control of Bakhmut. According to the leader of the Russian Wagner mercenary group, Ukrainian defenders are providing fierce resistance to his forces around Bakhmut.
Britain reported on Friday that although Russian forces were making progress north of Bakhmut, they were finding it more challenging to attack Vuhledar, which is located about 150 kilometers (93 miles) to the south. Since fighting along the frontline has slowed in recent months to what the Ukrainian defense ministry refers to as "crawling" attempts to move little by little, it is impossible to independently determine the control areas of each side.
Oleh Zhdanov, a military analyst for Ukraine, claimed that despite Russian pressure in Maryinka, a small city that has been on the frontlines of the conflict since it began a year ago, Ukrainian forces were able to hold the ground. There have been no changes in the past day regarding the fighting that is occurring in the city center, according to Zhdanov.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Wagner, estimated that it could take two years for Moscow to fully control the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Moscow referred to both last year as "republics" of Russia, a claim that was denounced as illegal by the majority of UN member states.
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In recent months, President Volodymyr Zelensky and other military representatives have engaged in a diplomatic marathon in an effort to acquire more Western weapons and fighter planes. Effective fire damage is essential for victory on the battlefield and it calls for a sufficient supply of weapons and ammunition, according to Zaluzhnyi.