Zelensky sacks military recruitment chiefs following corruption allegations

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has sacked all military conscription chiefs across the country following a corruption probe into their conduct. 

Zelensky made the announcement in a post on social media on Friday, after meeting with senior military leadership, amid a national probe into an embarrassing scandal that may expose real reasons behind Kiev's massive losses and failures in their heavily publicized and long-anticipated counteroffensives against Russian troops.

"We are dismissing all regional military commissars" due to corruption allegations that “could amount to treason," he said. 

"This system should be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery during war is treason," the president said amid a massive delivery of advanced weapons by its Western arms suppliers.

Zelensky claims Ukraine's counteroffensive put off by lack of munitions

Ukrainian president claims that plans for a highly anticipated counteroffensive in early spring have been postponed due to the lack of adequate munitions.

He went on to state that the decision will be implemented by Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces Valeriy Zaluzhnyi. He said there will be inspections by the Ukrainian security services before new heads of the regional recruitment centers are appointed.

Zelensky also recommended that the new soldier recruitment chiefs be selected from people with battlefield experience. 

He said during the inspection of the territorial recruitment centers, law enforcement agencies exposed cases of corruption.

The president said Ukraine's general mobilization was a key area in which inspectors had uncovered instances of foul play, without elaborating on details, emphasizing that these "pose a threat to Ukraine's national security and undermine confidence in state institutions."

The sackings over alleged corruption came as US President Joe Biden requested yet another military aid package for Ukraine worth $24 billion to continue its war against Russia. 

The new package includes more than $13 billion in security assistance and $7.3 billion for economic and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine, as well as $4 billion in funding for border security.

“As the impacts of Russia’s war reverberate around the globe, the United States is committed to maintaining strong global opposition to Russia’s illegal war,” wrote Biden’s budget director Shalanda Young in a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Russia launched its "special military operation" in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, over the persisting eastern expansion of the US-led NATO military alliance and its failure to satisfy Moscow's repeated demands for security guarantees.

US announces $2bn in new Ukraine military aid as war completes a year

The United States is preparing a fresh military aid package to Ukraine worth $2 billion, a senior US official has said, defying repeated warnings from Moscow as the war completes one year.

Since then, the United States and Ukraine's other Western allies have supplied it with tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons, including rocket systems, drones, armored vehicles, tanks, and communication systems.

Western countries have also imposed a slew of economic sanctions on Moscow. The Kremlin has repeatedly warned that the sanctions and the Western military assistance will only prolong the war.

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