Agriculture minister, accused of illegal acquisition of state-owned land, resigns

Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi, suspected of illegal acquisition of state-owned land, submitted his resignation to the Ukrainian parliament on April 25, Parliament Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk announced on Facebook.

"(Solskyi's) letter will be considered during the nearest plenary session," Stefanchuk wrote.

Solskyi is suspected of illegally appropriating Ukrainian state-owned land worth Hr 291 million ($7.4 million) and attempting to seize another plot worth an additional Hr 190 million ($4.8 million), according to Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU).

Ukraine's Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) announced on April 24 that it will request the arrest of Solskyi with an alternative option of a Hr 200 million ($5 million) bail, Economic Pravda reported.

NABU said at least four people were involved in the scheme, which involved destroying the documents that showed the Ukrainian state had permanent ownership of two plots of land in Sumy Oblast.

Following this, the conspirators, allegedly including Solskyi, worked from 2017-2021 to create new fictitious land ownership documents.

Solskyi has denied the allegations on April 24, saying he was not planning on resigning. He said that the case concerned the period of 2017-2018 when Solskyi served as a lawyer, not as a minister.

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