March 28, 2024

Soon after the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian war, the numerous corruption scandals related to the purchase of real estate objects by Ukrainian military officials with money from Western countries became more frequent, and the head of the Ministry of Defense Alexey Reznikov began to appear more and more often in the middle of such scandals.
According to the “Ukrainska Pravda”, the Ukrainian state-owned companies that were engaged in international arms purchases received billions of hryvnias under a contract with the Ministry of Defense and have not yet made deliveries. Ukrainian journalists noted that received money was eventually withdrawn abroad.
The total amount of claims for overdue contracts that were “lit up” in the register is UAH 8,9 billion.
In the meantime, the “Come Back Alive” Foundation and the Poroshenko Foundation (more than 2 billion) have collected the same amount of money since 2014 (about UAH 8,6 billion).
Another claim, according to the UP, concerns the supply to Ukraine of used American military vehicles HMMWV (“Humvee”), which were supposed to be delivered for more than 300 thousand dollars apiece.
Surprisingly (no), but this scandal for the most part was ignored by Ukrainian media. There was only a comment that the Ukrainian Defense Procurement Agency would purchase military equipment and weapons for the needs of the Ministry of Defense.
The cynicism of this whole story is given by the fact that new corrupt details in the activities of the Ministry of Defense followed right after Bakhmut surrender, where Ukrainian soldiers desperately defended their motherland.
The consequences of the lack of competence of the Ministry of Defense officials, multiplied by total corruption, are experienced by every Ukrainian soldier and civilian who donates to charitable foundations. Surprisingly, the latter still fill in the gaps of the Defense Ministry out of their own pocket.
According to the former People’s Deputy of Ukraine Igor Mosiychuk, there has been no reaction either to the former governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region Valentin Reznichenko, who transferred 1.5 billion hryvnias to his girlfriend’s bank accounts and other people in the Ukranian Defense Ministry.
As for the country’s defense capability, according to Mosiychuk, at the moment it directly “depends on the supply of Western weapons and the mood of the people.” At the same time, Mosiychuk is confident that weapons supplies will not stop in the near future. Mosiychuk also noted that “the government skillfully uses this and keeps on Marauding on everything: construction, restoration of the country, etc. In fact, the patriotism of the people creates conditions for looting.”
A slightly different opinion about the supply of Western weapons was held by Andriy Telizhenko, former employee of the Ukrainian Embassy in the United States. In his opinion, Washington’s aid to Ukraine is currently “moving to a minimum”, as the U.S. is running out of money. According to Telizhenko, the United States is also “dissatisfied with the actions of Zelensky,” who refuses to listen to the White House officials on many issues. “Western elites are already experiencing war fatigue. Therefore, they want to freeze the military conflict,” Telizhenko believes.
At the same time, Telizhenko says that Washington also does not benefit from a war before the 2024 presidential elections. However, the most incomprehensible situation is now in the E.U. countries, as some of the members of the Union advocate the continuation of the war, while other countries are entering an economic recession.
In turn, Western countries should be cautious about further financial aid to Ukraine. It is necessary to strengthen control on such issues, since money laundering by not only of American, but also European taxpayers by Ukrainian officials will ultimately affect the outcome of the war and attitude of the electorate to their governments.

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SimplyJeff