In Ukraine, the Minister of Agrarian Policy was arrested in a corruption case.

The Supreme Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine decided to arrest until June 26 the country’s Minister of Agrarian Policy Nikolai Solsky, who is suspected of illegally taking over state land.

At the same time, according to information Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty, Solsky was given the opportunity to post bail in the amount of more than 75 million hryvnia ($1.9 million). According to lawyer Nazar Kulchitsky, fundraising is now underway, and if the money can be raised, bail will be posted. The minister’s defense also noted that in general it does not agree with the court’s decision and can appeal it as soon as it receives the full text of the decision.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau said earlier this week that the former head of the Verkhovna Rada Agrarian Committee, a current minister, may have been involved in the illegal seizure of state land worth about 300 million hryvnia (more than $7 million) and in an attempt to seize another plot of land worth more than 190 million hryvnia ($5 million).

In addition to Solsky, officials of the State Geocadastre bodies and the so-called “curators” who controlled the activities of these bodies could also participate in organizing the scheme for acquiring state land, writes “RBC-Ukraine”.

According to investigators, the suspects could have taken possession of land plots between 2017 and 2021. Nikolai Solsky himself stated that we are talking about the period when he was a lawyer and did not hold either the post of Minister of Agrarian Policy or the post of chairman of the Rada committee. He also noted that the case “refers to a dispute between state-owned enterprises and individuals, in particular, military personnel participating in hostilities in eastern Ukraine for lands that were given to the latter in possession in accordance with the law.”