5,000 nationalists protest corruption in Ukraine

Far-right demonstrators attend rally against corruption in downtown Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, March 23, 2019. The placard reads "While we fought, the Svinarchuk and Poroshenko robbed". (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Far-right demonstrators gesture during a rally against corruption in downtown Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, March 23, 2019. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

About 5,000 nationalist demonstrators have held a protest in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev calling for arrests in a defense industry corruption case.

The Saturday 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.