KIEV, March 25. /TASS/. The head of Ukraine’s state service responsible for handling emergency situations, Sergey Bochkovsky, and his first deputy, Vasily Stoyetsky, have been arrested for using fraudulent schemes in carrying out state purchases. Both were handcuffed at a meeting of the Cabinet with a group of journalists watching. Dozens of TV cameras were on at the moment.
"Sergey Bochkovsky and his first deputy, Vasily Stoyetsky, were detained under article 208. Their offices are being searched," an investigator said.
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According to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, state purchases were carried out through private companies, which eventually transferred the proceeds to the accounts of Bochkovsky’s and Stoyetsky’s companies in Jersey Island.
He also demanded dismissal of the chiefs of all heads of regional offices of the emergencies service involved.
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has asked the corresponding agencies of the Western countries "to look into all transactions related to these firms and accounts, in fact registered in Cyprus, to make sure the entire fraudulent scheme be exposed and those responsible be punished."
"We are dismissing the service’s entire vertical chain of command involved," Yatsenyuk said.
To explain why the arrest was made in public Yatsenyuk said: "It’s not a stage show. It’s vaccination. There must be such publicity."