The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has announced a sweeping clear-out of senior national and regional government officials and the appointment of a new supervisory board for the state-owned natural gas giant, Naftogaz. This is a move to reassure both the Ukrainian public and the country’s western allies that the fight against corruption remains a priority, despite the ongoing war with Russia.

The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament – in which Zelenskiy’s Servant of the People party has a commanding majority – quickly followed the president’s lead by presenting a draft bill aiming to boost transparency in defence procurement to avoid, for example, artificially inflated prices being paid for troops’ rations.

The move has been likened in the international press to a major reshuffle at the top of Ukrainian politics. Among the senior national government officials to go were the deputy prosecutor general, the deputy ministers of community and territorial development, the deputy minister of social policy, and the deputy minister of defence.

In addition, the heads of four frontline regional administrations – Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – were dismissed. Among them, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Valentyn Reznichenko, had already been implicated in a scandal around the “Great Reconstruction” project, accused of giving US$41 million (£33 million) of funds earmarked for road reconstruction in his region – 65% of the total allocation – to a company co-owned by his girlfriend, Yana Khlanta.

Another key figure to lose his job is Oleksiy Symonenko, the deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine. Symonenko has been accused of spending a holiday in Spain in late December, which was partially financed by prominent Ukrainian businessman.

Also dismissed was the leader of the Kyiv capital region, Oleksii Kuleba. However, Kuleba was immediately appointed by Zelensky as the deputy head of his presidential office. He replaces the most visible figure to resign, Kyryl Tymoshenko. Tymoshenko was mired in public scandals last year, including about his personal use of a car donated by General Motors to Ukraine for humanitarian purposes.

This kind of personal abuse of power and position has long been endemic in Ukraine and didn’t suddenly end with the Russian invasion. But it has infuriated many ordinary Ukrainians.

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