the Minister of Agriculture, suspected of corruption, placed in pre-trial detention

The acts alleged against Mykola Solsky occurred before he joined the government.

The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office announced on Friday April 26 the placement in pre-trial detention of the Minister of Agriculture, accused of having appropriated land belonging to the State. It is the first time a serving minister has been detained in Ukraine, according to anti-corruption activists in the country. Mykola Solsky presented her resignation on Thursday, but it must still be validated by Parliament.

The Anti-Corruption Court ordered his placement in pre-trial detention at least until June 24, specifies the prosecutor’s office specializing in these cases. He can be released if he pays bail of 1.8 million euros, according to the court decision.

Mykola Solsky worked for a law firm until 2019. He was elected to Parliament that year on the party list of President Volodymyr Zelensky, then appointed minister in March 2022.

Land worth 6.9 million euros

Ukraine’s national anti-corruption agency announced on Tuesday that the minister was suspected of having seized public land worth nearly 6.9 million euros, and of having “tried to appropriate other lands” worth nearly 4.5 million euros. To this end, according to the authorities, he acted in concert with officials from the state service responsible for land register and cartography. They are suspected of having appropriated between 2017 and 2021 nearly 2,500 hectares in the Sumy region, in northeastern Ukraine, through a system that involved the misappropriation of official documents.

Corruption cases regularly emerge in Ukraine, but they usually involve lower-ranking officials. The fight against corruption, endemic in Ukraine for decades, is one of the major conditions set by the Twenty-Seven in kyiv, as part of its accession procedure to the European Union.