A UKRAINIAN court ordered the detention of Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi today as part of a high-profile corruption investigation.

The High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Mr Solskyi should be held for 60 days, but he was released on bail of 75 million hryvnias (£1.5m), a statement said.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects that the minister headed an organised crime group that, between 2017 and 2021, unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias (£5.8m) and tried to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias (£3.8m).