Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies announced Wednesday that they are investigating senior officials in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, a day after the country’s recently fired defence minister called for national elections despite the ongoing fight against Russia’s invasion.
The latest suspects include a deputy head of the presidential office, a former lawmaker, the chairperson of a state bank’s board and the head of that bank’s supervisory board, among others, the agency said.
The Defense Ministry said Russian forces on Tuesday evening hit a bulk carrier in the Black Sea, southeast of Odesa, that was carrying military equipment. On Wednesday, the Russian military struck what it said were fuel and lubricant storage tanks for the Ukrainian armed forces in the southern port of Chornomorsk. Meanwhile, in Ukraine, a Russian drone attacked a minibus in the southern Kherson region on Wednesday morning, killing four people, said Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson regional military administration.
Ukraine’s Parliament approved Zelensky’s candidate, Yevhenii Khmara, as the new defense minister in a vote Wednesday, a move that effectively closes the door to Fedorov’s return to the post, which he has sought, any time soon. Russian air defenses overnight intercepted 453 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions, as well as occupied Crimea and the Black Sea, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said Wednesday. Amid the fighting, Russia and Ukraine each sent home 103 prisoners of war Wednesday, according to Zelenskyy and the Russian Defense Ministry.
Four women were also wounded in the strike and were hospitalized, he said.
