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).

A crackdown on deep-rooted corruption over the past two years has led to Ukraine’s defence minister, top prosecutor, intelligence chief and other senior officials losing their jobs.

That has caused embarrassment as Ukraine receives tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to help fight Russia’s invasion forces.

The European Union and Nato have demanded widespread anti-corruption measures before Kiev can join the two blocs.

Washington was expected to announce the provision of further military aid to Ukraine last night, which the roughly $6 billion (£4.9bn) package including munitions for Patriot air defence systems.

US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the aid package would be funded through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which pays for longer-term contracts with the military industry, so it could take months or years for the weapons to arrive.

It follows the White House decision earlier this week to approve the urgent delivery of $1bn (£803m) in arms and equipment to Ukraine. Those weapons include air defence munitions and large amounts of artillery rounds that are badly needed by Ukrainian forces, as well as armoured vehicles and other weapons.

According to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, Russian commanders are likely to seek to advance as much as possible before the arrival of the new US military aid.