Two Ukraine officials nabbed at televised cabinet meeting

Two top Ukrainian officials have been detained at a televised government meeting on suspicion of extorting bribes.

Ukrainian police officers Wednesday spirited away the head of Ukraine’s Service of Emergency Situations, Sergiy Bochkovsky, and his deputy, Vasyl Stoyetsky, both handcuffed, on “high-level” corruption charges.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said the two men were suspected of siphoning funds from fuel suppliers off to a tax haven.

The head of Ukraine’s Service of Emergency Situations, Sergiy Bochkovsky (R), and his deputy, Vasyl Stoyetsky (L) are seen handcuffed during a televised cabinet meeting in the capital, Kiev, on March 25, 2015.

“This was not a show, this was not theater,” said Avakov, adding, “We decided it was necessary to do it this way, during the Cabinet meeting, as inoculation, as a preventative measure against corrupt officials, of whom we unfortunately have many.”

In another anti-corruption crackdown, only hours before this arrest, President Petro Poroshenko sacked one of the country’s most prominent oligarchs, Ihor Kolomoisky, from his post as regional governor in the key industrial region of Dnipropetrovsk in the wake of a dispute over control of the main state oil and gas company.

Ukrainian billionaire and former regional governor, Ihor Kolomoisky ©AFP

In a warning addressed to other officials suspected of corruption, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said, “This will happen to everyone who breaks the law and sneers at the Ukrainian state.”

“When the country is at war and when we are counting every penny, they steal from the people and the state,” Yatsenyuk added.

The government in Ukraine has successfully negotiated a USD 17.5 billion rescue package for its war-battered economy with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) against the promise of tackling oligarchs and stamping out rampant corruption.