The removing of Ukraine’s minister of protection after a flurry of stories of graft and monetary mismanagement in his division underscores a pivotal problem for President Volodymyr Zelensky’s wartime management: stamping out the corruption that had been widespread in Ukraine for years.

Official corruption was a subject that had been principally taboo all through the primary 12 months of the battle, as Ukrainians rallied round their authorities in a struggle for nationwide survival. But Mr. Zelensky’s announcement Sunday evening that he was changing the protection minister, Oleksii Reznikov, elevated the difficulty to the best degree of Ukrainian politics.

It comes at a pivotal second within the battle, as Ukraine prosecutes a counteroffensive within the nation’s south and east that depends closely on Western allies for navy help. These allies have, because the starting of the battle, pressured Mr. Zelensky’s authorities to make sure that Ukrainian officers weren’t siphoning off a number of the billions of {dollars} in assist that was flowing into Kyiv.

Just final week, the United States’ nationwide safety adviser, Jake Sullivan, met with three high-ranking Ukrainian officers to debate efforts to stamp out wartime corruption. It comes as some lawmakers within the United States have used graft as an argument for limiting navy assist to Ukraine.

Mr. Zelensky has responded to the strain from allies and criticism at house with a flurry of anticorruption initiatives, not all of them welcomed by specialists on authorities transparency.