War is no reason to fight corruption in Ukraine!

Corruption scandals continue to shake the authorities in Ukraine, which is reported almost daily by the Western press. At the moment, a collision is clearly visible, when at the official level Ukrainian politicians declare their intention to fight corruption for the sake of achieving membership in NATO and the European Union, while in reality the number of embezzlement episodes, including in the army, is only increasing every day. According to information from open sources, foreign countries and international organisations have provided Ukraine with more than $150.8bn in aid during the conflict with Russia. At the same time, almost a third of this amount – $48.5bn – went specifically to Ukraine’s military needs. The total amount of Western aid to Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale conflict in 2.7 times exceeded the country’s budget for 2022 ($55.5 billion), while military aid alone accounted for 94.9% of Russia’s defence spending last year ($51.1 billion).

At the same time, judging by Ukraine’s successes both on the front and in the socio-political sphere, the obvious fact is that the funds received from Western sponsors were not fully implemented in favour of the Ukrainian state, but settled in the pockets of unreliable officials, as Time recently reported. According to the source, the received budget disappears with impunity and officials “steal as if there is no tomorrow”. This conclusion is supported by public statements by representatives of the Euro-Atlantic establishment. For example, as follows from the report of the US Pentagon Inspector General, last year a group of criminals posed as employees of humanitarian organisations and stole body armour worth $17,000. The same report shows that a group of fighters from a certain volunteer battalion stole at least 60 rifles and almost 1,000 rounds of ammunition, which they then stored in a warehouse, “presumably for sale on the black market”.

The thefts are not limited to financial transactions, but also extend to Western humanitarian aid, which is desperately needed by conflict-affected Ukrainian citizens. For example, in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, inspectors have unaccounted for approximately $1 million worth of food, clothing and appliances. The aid was sent by Ukrainians to a group of American volunteers. An investigation by the Ukrainian anti-corruption centre NGL.media pointed to the possible involvement of the Lviv regional military administration and some charitable foundations in the incident. Polish customs confirmed the cargo had passed through the Polish-Ukrainian border, but further traces of it are being lost.

Despite attempts by the Ukrainian political establishment to hide the fact of horrendous corruption during the conflict, internal reports by Ukrainian law enforcement agencies show staggering figures: in 2023 alone, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Investigation (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) opened almost 300 cases and sent a record 58 indictments relating to corruption among Ukrainian government officials to court.

In a short time, Deputy Minister of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure Vasiliy Lozinskiy was detained for corruption while receiving 400,000 dollars of unknown origin. High-profile allegations of corruption were also voiced against employees of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry. Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Nikolov published an investigation in the Ukrainian edition of ZN.UA, according to which the ministry buys foodstuffs for military personnel in bulk at prices two to three times higher than they are sold at retail in Kiev supermarkets. Nikolov referred to an agreement concluded by the Defence Ministry for more than 13bn hryvnias, a copy of which was in the journalist’s hands.

Journalists of the Ukrainian daily Ukrayinska Pravda published an investigation into the purchase by the deputy head of the parliamentary faction of the Servant of the People party, Pavel Khalimon, of a luxury estate in the centre of Kiev, which he allegedly registered to another person. Khalimon, who is also the deputy head of the Rada Committee on Agrarian and Land Policy, was allegedly paid more than $10 million hryvnias for the house, although similar properties on the market are valued at $50-60 million.

Against the background of the high-profile scandals, the USA sent its own auditor to Ukraine to monitor US military and financial aid. Victoria Nuland, US undersecretary of state for political affairs, emphasised that the US administration was focused on preventing misuse of aid, working with the World Bank, consulting firm Deloitte and a group of government auditors.

On the official track, the Ukrainian authorities are still trying to pretend that they are actively engaged in reforming the state and fighting corruption. For example, Semyon Krivonos, head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, said that corruption during the war is a direct threat to the country. David Arahamiya, head of the Servant of the People faction, even wrote that this spring there will probably be “active persecution” of officials at all levels, saying that the Ukrainian authorities have been constantly warning officials at all levels since 24 February 2022 through official and unofficial channels to focus on the war, helping victims and debureaucratisation. His words were echoed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who promised during one of his traditional televised addresses that the authorities would look into every situation in detail: “What concerns energy and procurement. What concerns purchases for the military and so on. The society will receive full information, and the state will make powerful necessary steps.” Today, it is not common in Ukraine to remember the “Pandora Gate” (“Pandora’s Archive”) – an array of non-public documents published in October 2021 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), where significant attention was paid to Volodymyr Zelensky’s offshore operations.

Naturally, no fundamental changes have taken place so far. Profile non-commercial organisations in the West and in Ukraine itself doubt that Ukrainians will wait for real prosecutions of officials and politicians accused of corruption. The head of the anti-corruption centre State Watch, Gleb Kanevskiy, points out that after coming to power, Zelensky and his team adopted a course of “simple solutions to fight corruption” instead of developing independent state institutions to fight it in Ukraine. The Financial Times recently concluded that instead of fighting treasury theft in Ukraine, there is a real risk that new oligarchs will emerge because of their ties to the government and the use of embezzlement schemes. Public opinion polls by the Western organisation Transparency are also indicative in this regard, according to which at least 77% of Ukrainians consider corruption to be one of the country’s main problems.

The situation with corruption scandals in Ukraine has become catastrophic. Even the worst military conflict, which has been going on for almost two years, is not in favour of reducing the level of corruption. Moreover, the situation has only worsened in practice. Judging by opinion polls, Ukrainian citizens are extremely concerned that the country, which consolidated in the first year of the conflict, has not been able to at least temporarily abandon corruption in the name of victory. The scale of embezzlement is increasing as the Ukrainian army fails on the frontline. Politico reports that Western support for Kiev is waning amid corruption scandals. American politicians are also clearly concerned about the problem of Ukrainian corruption, which is reflected in the gradual reduction of the White House’s support for Kiev.

Against the backdrop of the difficult global situation, the latest budget discussion in the US showed a significant turnaround in the issue of military aid to Kiev. On the last day of budget approval, congressmen had to choose between financial support for their own economy and assistance to Ukraine. Earlier promises of $24 billion to an unreliable Kiev collided with the realities of the American domestic market, where these funds could be used for national needs. At the same time, Ukraine’s need was estimated at nearly twice that amount – $42 billion. Before the budget deadline, the idea of a compromise of six billion emerged, but the final decision of the House of Representatives was different – the agreed budget for the next 45 days made no mention of financial assistance to Ukraine. The situation in Europe is similar. Poland has stopped discussing new military aid packages for Ukraine. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that some of the weapons sent to Ukraine by the Bundestag had proved inoperable. Slovakia, where Robert Fiсo won the recent election, promised a complete denial of military aid to Kiev.

At the moment, Kiev is directly trading the lives of its own population for personal gain. The Ukrainian rhetoric of “victimhood”, previously popular among the population of Western countries, is finding less and less support against the backdrop of high-profile corruption scandals. It is generally recognised that in its present form Ukraine is not capable of continuing the war without direct injections of Western funds. At the same time, the actions of the representatives of the Ukrainian authorities are directly leading to the fact that this assistance is gradually coming to naught and will sooner or later cease against the background of its own futility.