President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 17 hinted he wanted to replace the leadership of law enforcement agencies due to their lack of political will to investigate high-profile cases.
Zelensky made the statement using the unusual format of a video filmed in a car and distributed through social media, instead of the traditional interview format.
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He said that he had met Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) Chief Artem Sytnyk and Chief Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Nazar Kholodnytsky after he was elected as president on April 21. He said he expected results from them, but there had been little progress in major investigations since then.
“The anti-corruption prosecutor’s office says the NABU is to blame for everything,” Zelensky said. “The NABU says that the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office is to blame. The prosecutor general says that everyone would have been jailed already if there had been political will.”
He said he told them that his team has the “political will to jail all those robbers who have profiteered in a very dirty way.”
“There is will, there is a desire,” Zelensky said. “Only one thing is lacking — time… My political will is not enough. Those law enforcement agencies have no political will.”
“Maybe some of them have political will but they always lack something,” he continued. “And when they lack something, we’ll do our best to make sure that our country lacks those people.”
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Zelensky also said that his team would either liquidate Ukravtodor, the state road agency, or replace its leadership. All top officials who have stolen money during road construction must be jailed, he added.
“There will be roads when there are no fools in the country,” he quipped in a reference to the joke that Russia has two problems — fools and roads.
Zelensky also said that investment in road infrastructure should be encouraged.
Commenting on Russia’s war against Ukraine, which has killed 13,000 people and dismembered the nation since 2014, Zelensky said that he wants to stop it.
“If you want to stop the war, you’ll necessarily stop it,” he said. “The previous government didn’t want to do that.”
Zelensky listed his recent conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a planned meeting with Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, as well as prisoner exchanges, in citing progress to end the war. The exchanges will start with 24 Ukrainian sailors captured by Russia in Black Sea waters on Nov. 25, he added.
“There are no people whom I could trust, except for our inner circle,” Zelensky continued. “Everyone lies, takes bribes and steals with a smile on their faces. This is utter cynicism.”
He said he wants to make history.
“I’d like us to be respected. There hasn’t been a single presidential team over the past 30 years that people would meet in the street, greet with joy and respect a lot.”
