Three deputies of the mayor of Odessa, Gennady Trukhanov, were charged, they are suspected of participating in corruption schemes. This was stated by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).

“Three deputy mayors have been charged. (...) [They took] control of almost all issues of the economic life of the city, including interaction with developers, purchases at the expense of the local budget, the activities of public utilities, and other aspects of interaction with business,” the ministry said in a statement.

NABU clarified that in order to achieve their goals, the deputies set up a process of systemic bribery of deputies of the local council and officials. According to the investigation, a member of the land commission received $15,000 from the defendants every month. At the same time, the department did not name the names of the defendants in the case.

Earlier, in the Odessa region, the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) of Ukraine uncovered a large-scale corruption scheme in the implementation of a grain deal. On November 17, President of the Republic Volodymyr Zelensky said that there is no corruption in the country, and all corrupt officials have left it. He added that this will not happen in the future.