Ukrainian minister remanded in custody after corruption allegations

KYIV: Ukraine's highest anti-corruption court has ordered the pre-trial detention of Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi on suspicion of misappropriation of state land worth millions.

The preventive measure is initially set to run until June 24, media in Kyiv reported on Friday, citing the court. There is a possibility that Solskyi will be released on bail, the reports said. The minister had previously submitted his resignation but continued to deny any guilt.

Parliamentary Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk published the handwritten letter of resignation on Facebook (NASDAQ:META) on Thursday. Parliament will decide on the dismissal soon, Stefanchuk wrote.

Investigators from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau had handed Solskyi a notice of suspicion on Tuesday. The minister is alleged to have brought a total of 1,250 plots of land totalling almost 2,500 hectares into the possession of his agricultural holding between 2017 and 2021.

According to the investigators, this involved a value of 291 million hryvnia ($7.34 million). The law enforcement authorities said they also thwarted the attempt, which is said to have involved further plots of land worth 190 million hryvnia.

The minister denied the allegations. "There was no corruption. Nobody took any money," Solskyi wrote in a statement broadcast by public television.

"Furthermore, none of the suspects had signed over land to themselves or relatives," he added.

Solskyi, a lawyer by profession, had previously admitted that in 2017, he had represented several private individuals in a dispute over land against state-owned companies in the Sumy region in question.

In 2019, Solskyi was elected to the unicameral parliament, the Supreme Council or Rada, via the presidential party list in the early elections initiated by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

He chaired the agriculture committee from 2019 until he was appointed minister of agriculture in March 2022.