Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has asked the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) to check Deputy Ecology and Natural Resources Minister Viktor Kantsurak.

The prime minister said that he does not intend to restrict ministers in appointing the staff at their ministries, as they are politically responsible for this. He asked ministers to thoroughly select candidates and not appoint discredited candidates.

"Those who are not guilty need to be protected. Those who are guilty should be punished. I think that anti-corruption authorities settle this matter quickly," Groysman said.

Kantsurak during the rule of disgraced former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was director of the preserve department of the Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry headed by Mykola Zlochevsky and Eduard Stavytsky.

Kantsurak in 2011 was a member of the tender committee to purchase satellite images of the Ukrainian territory from Austroplan Austrian Engineering GmbH for UAH 49.38 million. Kharkiv National Academy of Urban Economy offered UAH 250,000 for these images at the tender.

The NABU is investigating this tender.