Ukraine agriculture minister suspected of corruption offers resignation

Ukraine's agriculture minister offered to resign Thursday after he was named a formal suspect in a multimillion-dollar corruption inquiry.

Investigators earlier this week accused Mykola Solsky of illegally seizing land worth more than $7 million when he was the head of a major farming company and a member of parliament.

"I have written a letter of resignation... I believe it the right step," Solsky said in a post on Telegram.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) said Tuesday that Solsky headed a group that expropriated state land in the northeastern Sumy region worth 291 million hryvnias ($7.3 million) between 2017 and 2021.

Solsky said the deals related to a "dispute" and the land had been handed over "in accordance with the law".

The head of Ukraine's parliament posted a copy of a handwritten letter from Solsky asking to resign.

Ukraine's parliament must approve his request.

"The letter will be considered at one of the next plenary sessions," parliament chair Ruslan Stefanchuk said.

Blighted by severe corruption scandals since the fall of the Soviet Union, Kyiv has pledged to bolster its anti-graft efforts as part of its bid for EU membership.

President Volodymyr Zelensky last year sacked the country's defence minister over a series of corruption scandals in the army.