Zelenskyy says Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies free to probe his inner circle

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) have full freedom of action and may continue investigating his friends and close associates.

“I am focusing on the war, and what about anti-corruption agencies, … they do what they have to do. They have all the independence. Nobody is stopping their checking. And we don’t stop it. It does not matter whether a person is close to us or not, whether we know them or not,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with Fox News.

At the same time, the president acknowledged that the situation causes some concern.

“The problem is that from the very beginning of the war, all the institutions did not work, and a lot of steps governmental institutions did you know like during the war, not according to the rules and etc.,” he noted.

Earlier reports suggested that pressure from anti-corruption bodies on Zelenskyy’s inner circle is being viewed as a way to limit the president’s control over the Verkhovna Rada and the government, effectively reducing his influence over key state decisions.

By Khagan Isayev