Ukraine - Corruption - 2021-2030
Since 2014, Ukraine passed numerous reforms, including the launch of a number of anti-corruption institutions. In fall 2020, however, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine invalidated key provisions of laws underpinning two of these institutions — the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP). These rulings have rolled back key provisions of prior IMF programs, preventing new disbursements of IMF, World Bank, and EU concessionary loans.
Nicolai N. Petro, Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island, wrote in December 2021 that one " undesirable consequence of American policy in the region has been the veritable explosion of corruption, even beyond the already high levels of Zelenskyy’s predecessor. According to the nonpartisan Committee of Ukrainian Voters, every fifth member of parliament from Zelenskyy’s party, Servant of the People, has been involved in one public scandal or another. According to Zelenskyy’s former finance minister, Igor Umansky, the sheer scale of corruption today has led to “the loss of an adequate perception of reality by the authorities.” Even the new Ukrainian government agencies that, at the West’s insistence, were established to fight corruption, were now widely seen as profiting from it."
US Representative Madison Cawthorn, a Republican from North Carolina, told his supporters 17 March 2022 to "remember that Zelensky is a thug." He said in a video which was obtained by Raleigh news station WRAL "The Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt," and has been "pushing woke ideologies". The congressman's starring role in Kremlin-sponsored propaganda with the video clip repeatedly aired on Russian state-run television. Republican Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed on 23 March 2023 that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is corrupt. "Do you agree with Madison Cawthorn that Zelensky is corrupt and that the Ukrainian Government is corrupt?," Greene said, as she read a question she had received. "Yes, and yes, that is an easy one. This was known everywhere," she answered.
In an effort to undermine Zelensky’s credibility, some posts on social media claimed in 2022, without providing evidence, that Zelensky was corrupt and has a monthly income of $11 million. Different versions of the claim add that Zelensky makes an $11 million monthly profit from the war in Ukraine. “This, ladies and gentlemen, is what corruption looks like,” reads the caption of a Facebook post that shares a meme that claims Zelensky has an income of $11 million a month and a net worth of $596 million. The post offers no proof for those claims.
Seymour Hersh claimed on 23 October 2022 that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and his senior officials were skimming American taxpayer dollars by the hundreds of millions. The alleged grift even included schemes involving trade with Russia itself. Zelensky and his entourage embezzled at least $400 million from US funds meant for diesel procurement in 2023, Hersh claimed in a new article on Substack, citing a CIA estimate. Russian propagandists appear delighted at the much-criticized claims by Seymour Hersh.
Kiev had allegedly been buying diesel fuel, which was essential for the war effort, from Russia itself – and in the process skimming large sums of US funds earmarked for diesel payments. Reports had earlier surfaced about how oil products originating in Russia had made their way to Ukraine through Bulgaria and Latvia. The scheme involving the Baltic state, which was reported in detail by the Latvian television program Neka Personiga, may have violated the EU’s anti-Russian sanctions.
An expert cited by Hersh compared the level of corruption in Ukrainian procurement to what was seen in Afghanistan, when a US-backed government was in charge in Kabul. According to his sources, ministries in Kiev compete to set up front firms in order to export weapons and ammunition, with the relevant officials profiting from kickbacks. The US government, meanwhile, has stated that it has seen no evidence of Western-supplied weapons in Ukraine being diverted elsewhere.
Hersh cited an intelligence source who referred to the January 2023 meeting between Zelensky and CIA Director William Burns. The US official allegedly presented a list of 35 generals and ministers known to the CIA to be corrupt. Senior Ukrainian officials also complained that Zelensky “was taking a larger share of the skim money than was going to the generals,” the source explained, comparing the meeting to a scene from a 1950s mob movie. Hersh contends that the Ukrainian leader’s response was to fire staff from the Cabinet of Ministers, regional administrations, and other parts of the Ukrainian government. Kiev claimed the move was part of its anti-corruption strategy.
Having gained a majority in the the House of Representatives, the Republican Party wants stricter controls over the expenditure of multibillion-dollar tranches allocated to Kiev. On 29 January 2023, several inspectors arrived in Kiev from the US. The commission included Inspectors General Diana Shaw, Robert Storch, and Nicole Angarella from the US Department of State, the Pentagon, and the Agency for International Development (USAID), respectively. According to the US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink, the purpose of their visit was “to advance independent oversight of US assistance to Ukraine”.
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