KYIV (Reuters) – Ukrainian anti-corruption prosecutors said on Thursday that Odesa mayor Hennadii Trukhanov had been detained in connection with an investigation into suspected corruption.
Trukhanov was elected mayor of the Black Sea port city in 2014 and has been under investigation since 2017 over embezzlement allegations which he has denied.
The prosecutors said on the Telegram messaging app that Trukhanov was set to be detained for 60 days for failing to pay 30.866 million hryvnias ($836,590.32) in bail.
Trukhanov faces charges of embezzling 92 million hryvnias. He was acquitted of the charges in 2018 but an investigation into the purchase of an administrative building in an old industrial factory in Odesa was reopened in 2021.
Reuters was unable to reach Trukhanov for comment.
Fighting corruption is vital for Ukraine as it tries to join the European Union, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has launched a crackdown on graft even though Russia has been waging war on Ukraine since its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
($1 = 36.8950 hryvnias)
(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk and Olena Harmash, Editing by Timothy Heritage)