The beginning of this year was marked by a record number of management decisions and large-scale personnel changes in the authorities and in the law enforcement system of Ukraine.
The following resigned from their positions: the Deputy Head of the Office of the President, the Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine, the Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine, the heads of 5 regional military administrations and the heads of 5 regional prosecutor’s offices.
This did not go unnoticed by the russian propaganda, which launched a provocative information campaign aimed at discrediting the Ukrainian government and the President.
Publications in pro-russian publications and social networks promote theses in the minds of the audience about, as it were, “the incompetence of the Ukrainian government and the redistribution of power between high-ranking officials”
❓What is really behind high-profile resignations and corresponding managerial decisions?
This is a clear signal from the President and his team to all those whose actions or behavior violate the law or the principle of justice. The harsh response to the alleged overestimation of purchase prices for products for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the embezzlement of state funds allocated to provide the population with alternative sources of light and heat, the trips of government officials abroad, as well as the purchase of an estate in an elite district of Kyiv by one of the People’s Deputies, was a response to Ukrainians’ expectations of legality for everyone, regardless of their positions.
It is not for nothing that the President of Ukraine signed a decree on January 23 that makes it impossible for civil servants to go abroad on vacation during the war.
The campaign launched by the President of Ukraine to bring to political and legal responsibility for the illegal actions of officials at all levels is absolutely justified and confirmed the readiness of the Ukrainian authorities to quickly and transparently correct mistakes, which Western partners definitely approve of.
For our Western partners, this is a signal that the anti-corruption system in Ukraine has worked. After all, when Ukraine officially became a candidate state for joining the EU last year, Brussels made it clear that Kyiv will need to strengthen its fight against corruption if it wants to become a full member. As evidenced by the reaction of Western politicians, the practice of the President of Ukraine dismissing high-ranking officials involved in acts of corruption receives support and approval.
💬A spokeswoman for the European Commission, A. Pisonero, said that although she cannot comment on ongoing criminal cases, the commission, “of course, welcomes the fact that the Ukrainian authorities are taking these issues seriously.”
💬 US officials insist that the events of recent weeks show that President V. Zelensky is committed to the fight against corruption.
💬Deputy Secretary of State of the White House for Political Affairs V. Nuland, during hearings in the Senate International Affairs Committee regarding Ukraine, noted that the release of officials in Kyiv “sends a very strong signal to others who will try to disrupt this military operation, and is important for the future of Ukraine”. “We…need to see anti-corruption steps, including good corporate governance and legal action, moving forward,” she added.
💬The statement of the National Security Council of the White House emphasizes that “the United States welcomes the quick actions taken by President Zelensky in this case, as well as the effective actions of Ukrainian anti-corruption institutions, civil society and the media to ensure effective monitoring and accountability of public procurement and the detention of those who holds public positions”.
Thus, the public statements of Western leaders neutralize hostile narratives, and also prove the fact that Western countries understand and support V. Zelenskyy in his fight against corruption for the fastest accession of Ukraine to the European Union.
But in addition to discrediting the Ukrainian leadership, the Russian PSYOP is trying to shift the focus of attention of its own audience from the essence of personnel purges in russia itself.
After all, the replacement of the commander of the so-called of the United Group of russian forces in Ukraine, surovikin as chief of the general staff of the russian armed forces, gerasimov, and other reshuffles in the russian army, testify not so much to the crisis of the military operations of the russian armed forces in Ukraine, but to the split of unity in putin’s entourage and a new round of the struggle for power in the kremlin .
It is obvious that the reshuffling of the commanders of the russian army group in Ukraine will not change the outcome of the war, and the new appointments prove that the prigozhin-surovikin-kadyrov influence group will lose the struggle for a place in the kremlin to the shoigu-gerasimov influence group.
Putin tries to “loop” between these groups, but does not trust any of them. However, the generals of both clans have already felt their strength and are not ready to retreat. Everything suggests that the russian leadership has come to terms with the defeat in Ukraine and is preparing for a new war inside the russian federation, but without putin.
By the way, the minister of defense of the russian federation shoigu, like his opponent prigozhin, has his own PMC “Shchit”, created not for the war with Ukraine, but for the next struggle for a place in the kremlin. And no information campaign to shift the public’s attention from its own problems to fantasies about Ukraine is not able to change anything.
