5,000 nationalists protest corruption in Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine – About 5,000 nationalist demonstrators have held a protest in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv calling for arrests in a defence industry corruption case.

The Saturday protest was the latest in several weeks of demonstrations by supporters of the far-right focusing on corruption.

A journalistic investigation in February reported that figures close to President Petro Poroshenko and a factory controlled by him were involved in an embezzlement scheme. It has become a top issue in the heated campaign ahead of Ukraine’s March 31 presidential election.

Poroshenko is trying to get re-elected, but a deep recession, endemic corruption and a war with Russia-backed separatists that has killed some 13,000 people since 2014 are weighing heavily on his ambitions.