Ukraine’s energy and justice ministers have resigned in the wake of a major investigation into corruption in the country’s energy sector.

President Volodymyr Zelensky called for Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk and Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko’s removal on Wednesday.

On Monday anti-corruption bodies accused several people of orchestrating a embezzlement scheme in the energy sector worth about $100m (£76m), including at the national nuclear operator Enerhoatom.

Some of those implicated in the scandal are – or have been – close associates of Zelensky’s.

The allegation is that Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko and other key ministers and officials received payments from contractors building fortifications against Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.

Among those alleged to be involved are former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov and Timur Mindich – a businessman and a co-owner of Zelensky’s former TV studio Kvartal95. He has since reportedly fled the country.

Halushchenko said he would defend himself against the accusations, while Grynchuk said on social media: “Within the scope of my professional activities there were no violations of the law.”

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (Nabu) and Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (Sap) said the investigation – which was 15 months in the making and involved 1,000 hours of audio recordings – uncovered the participation of several members of the Ukrainian government.

According to Nabu, the people involved systematically collected kickbacks from Enerhoatom contractors worth between 10% and 15% of contract values.

The anti-corruption bodies also said the huge sums had been laundered in the scheme and published photographs of bags full of cash. The funds were then transferred outside Ukraine, including to Russia, Nabu said.

Prosecutors alleged that the scheme’s proceeds were laundered through an office in Kyiv linked to the family of former Ukrainian lawmaker and current Russian senator Andriy Derkach.

Nabu has been releasing new snippets of its investigation and wiretaps every day and on Tuesday it promised more would come.

The scandal is unfolding against the backdrop of escalating Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities, including substations that supply electricity to nuclear power plants.

It will also shine a spotlight on corruption in Ukraine, which continues to be endemic despite work by Nabu and Sap in the 10 years since they were created.

In July, nationwide protests broke out over changes curbing the independence of Nabu and Sap. Ukrainians feared the nation could lose the coveted status of EU candidate country which it was granted on condition it mounted a credible fight against corruption.

Kyiv’s European partners also expressed severe alarm at the decision, with ambassadors from the G7 group of nations expressing the desire to discuss the issue with the Ukrainian leadership.

The backlash was the most severe to hit the Ukrainian government since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 and was only quelled by Zelensky’s decision to reinstate the freedom of the two anti-corruption bodies.

Yet for some that crisis brought into question Zelensky’s dedication to anti-corruption reforms. The latest scandal threatens to lead to more awkward questions for the Ukrainian president.

The public prosecutor’s office in Milan has opened an investigation into claims that Italian citizens travelled to Bosnia-Herzegovina on “sniper safaris” during the war in the early 1990s.

Italians and others are alleged to have paid large sums to shoot at civilians in the besieged city of Sarajevo.

The Milan complaint was filed by journalist and novelist Ezio Gavazzeni, who describes a “manhunt” by “very wealthy people” with a passion for weapons who “paid to be able to kill defenceless civilians” from Serb positions in the hills around Sarajevo.

Different rates were charged to kill men, women or children, according to some reports.

More than 11,000 people died during the brutal four-year siege of Sarejevo.

Yugoslavia was torn apart by war and the city was surrounded by Serb forces and subjected to constant shelling and sniper fire.

Similar allegations about “human hunters” from abroad have been made several times over the years, but the evidence gathered by Gavazzeni, which includes the testimony of a Bosnian military intelligence officer, is now being examined by Italian counter terrorism prosecutor Alessandro Gobbis.

The charge is murder.

The Bosnian officer apparently revealed that his Bosnian colleagues found out about the so-called safaris in late 1993 and then passed on the information to Italy’s Sismi military intelligence in early 1994.

The response from Sismi came a couple of months later, he said. They found out that “safari” tourists would fly from the northern Italian border city of Trieste and then travel to the hills above Sarajevo.

“We’ve put a stop to it and there won’t be any more safaris,” the officer was told, according to Ansa news agency. Within two to three months the trips had stopped.

Ezio Gavazzeni, who usually writes about terrorism and the mafia, first read about the sniper tours to Sarajevo three decades ago when Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported the story, but without firm evidence.

He returned to the topic after seeing “Sarajevo Safari”, a documentary film from 2022 by Slovenian director Miran Zupanic which alleges that those involved in the killings came from several countries, including the US and Russia as well as Italy.

Gavazzeni began to dig further and in February handed prosecutors his findings, said to amount to a 17-page file including a report by former Sarajevo mayor Benjamina Karic.

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been released from jail, three weeks into a five-year prison term for taking part in a criminal conspiracy.

He will be subject to strict judicial supervision and barred from leaving France ahead of an appeal trial due to be held next year.

On 21 October, the former centre-right president, 70, was sentenced to five years for conspiring to fund his 2007 election campaign with money from late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

His legal team immediately filed a request seeking his release.

Writing on social media after the release, Sarkozy said his “energy is focused solely on the single goal of proving my innocence.”

“The truth will prevail… The end of the story is yet to be written.”

Sarkozy’s car was seen leaving La Santé prison in Paris just before 15:00 (14:00 GMT), less than an hour-and-a-half after a court agreed to his early release.Soon after, he was seen arriving at his home in western Paris.

Christophe Ingrain, one of Sarkozy’s lawyers, hailed his client’s release as “a step forward” and said they would now be preparing for the appeal trial expected in March.

One condition of Sarkozy’s release is he does not contact any other witnesses in the so-called “Libyan dossier” or any justice ministry employees.

During his incarceration, he was visited by Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin. The visit prompted 30 French lawyers to file a complaint against Darmanin, highlighting what they said was a conflict of interest as Darmanin was a former colleague and friend of Sarkozy’s.

Speaking to a court in Paris via video link on Monday morning, Sarkozy described his time in solitary confinement as “gruelling” and “a nightmare”.

He said he had never had the “mad idea” of asking Gaddafi for money and stated he would “never admit to something I haven’t done”.

Sarkozy also paid tribute to prison staff who had made his time in prison “bearable”. “They have shown exceptional humanity,” he said.

Sarkozy’s wife, the singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and two of the former president’s sons were present in the courtroom to support him.

Sarkozy is the first French ex-leader placed behind bars since World War Two Nazi collaborationist leader Philippe Pétain was jailed for treason in 1945.

Since entering prison, Sarkozy has been held in a cell in the isolation wing.

He had a toilet, a shower, a desk, a small electric hob and a small TV – for which he paid a monthly €14 (£12) fee – and the right to a small fridge.

He also had the right to receive information from the outside world and family visits, as well as written and phone contact – but was in effect in solitary confinement. He was allowed just one hour a day for exercise, which he did by himself in the wing’s segregated courtyard.

Two bodyguards were stationed in nearby cells, which the interior minister Laurent Nuñez said was due to Sarkozy’s status. There was “obviously a threat against him”, Nuñez said.

Sarkozy was president from 2007 to 2012. Ever since he left office, he has been dogged by criminal inquiries and for months had to wear an electronic tag around his ankle after a conviction last December for trying to bribe a magistrate for confidential information about a separate case.