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KYIV — Ukraine’s anti-corruption authorities Friday arrested Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi, over allegations of graft.
He will be held for two months in a pre-trial detention center, with bail set at €1.7 million.
Solskyi is suspected of leading a group involved in the illegal acquisition of €6.9 million worth of state land and in an attempt to seize more property worth around €4.5 million between 2017 and 2021, when he was working as a lawyer.
Even though Solskyi maintains his innocence, he submitted a letter of resignation to the Ukrainian parliament Thursday after the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine leveled allegations against him, saying that it was the right step in the situation.
Now Solskyi, one of the wealthiest officials in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s administration, has two months to pay the bail fee. Should he do that, he has to hand over his passports to the authorities and can’t talk to other suspects and witnesses in the case.
Prosecutors asked for a higher bail fee of €4.6 million as they alleged that after detectives obtained a search warrant for Solskyi and one of his deputies in October 2023, the suspects learned about it and began to obstruct the investigation, the Anti-Corruption Action Center watchdog said.
