Member of Ukraine's Parliament Valeriy Konovaliuk has called on Ukraine's leadership to root out corruption in military-technical cooperation, which he said inflicts damage on the country's image and its European prospects.
During a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday the MP said that under the new conditions the country’s leadership should "take a fresh look at the level of corruption in arms trading schemes," as long as "corruption deprives Ukraine of its European prospects."
"The European Union does not want to collaborate with Ukraine because of its high level of corruption," Konovaliuk said.
According to Konovaliuk’s information, the level of corruption in Ukraine will be on the agenda of the GRECO conference in November.
The MP also added that today, Ukraine loses $600-800 million per year because of shady schemes in the country’s military-technical sector, and Ukraine is implicated in international arms-related scandals.
The people’s deputy referred to the recent sharp criticism of Ukraine by the United Nations Security Council related to the country’s arms deliveries to Africa, and to SIPRI experts’ conclusions on Ukraine’s alleged arms deliveries to South Sudan under a contract on armor supplies to Kenya.
Konovaliuk added that even a month after the inauguration of new President Viktor Yanukovych the key persons involved into shady schemes of military and technical cooperation are still not only holding their positions, but have already "sworn to one of the vice prime ministers of the new government." He also claimed that one of those persons is Head of the External Intelligence Service Mykola Malomuzh.
As the MP said, if the schemes operating in the military and technical cooperation sector are not stamped out, Ukraine could loose its chance to continue its military and technical cooperation with Russia.
