KYIV, March 23 – About 5,000 nationalist demonstrators have held a protest in Kyiv on Saturday calling for arrests in a defense industry corruption case, The Associated Press reported.

The 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.

Ukraine’s alleged corruption by senior officials have been the focus of criticism from Ukraine’s key international donors, including the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. embassy and the office of the EU Delegation in Ukraine.

The IMF, the U.S. Ambassador and the head of the EU ambassador recently asked Parliament to postpone a bill that may apparently weaken fight against corruption.

"The U.S. ambassador, the IMF mission, the EU ambassador wrote a letter … asking to postpone consideration of all bills, because they are imperfect, including the one proposed by the president," according to the head of parliament's committee on legislative support for law enforcement.

Ukraine’s military prosecutors earlier this month were discovered to have destroyed evidence in high-profile Ukroboronprom defense company embezzlement investigation, Bihus.info, a team of investigative reporters, said.

The reports uncovered involvement of Ihor Hladkovsky, son of the First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Oleh Hladkovsky, a close ally of Poroshenko.

Poroshenko dismissed Oleh Hladkovsky shortly after the reports, but the new revelations may hurt Poroshenko’s popularity ahead of presidential election later this month.

The latest report from Bihus.info aired on Monday indicated that law enforcement agencies may have for years closed their eyes on illegal purchases of spare parts for Ukroboronprom, enabling massive embezzlements.

Ukraine's tax authorities, the Military Prosecutor's Office, National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) knew about illegal schemes in Ukraine's defense industry, but failed to stop them. (ap/om/ez)