Published October 31,2023
A top advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has reportedly admitted that corruption is so rampant in the wartorn former Soviet state that officials are “stealing like there’s no tomorrow”.
Speaking anonymously to Time magazine, what is alleged to be a top presidential advisor to Zelensky said that the Ukrainian government’s efforts to stamp out corruption have proved fruitless, given that they were implemented too late to have any impact, including the firing of Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov.
“People are stealing like there’s no tomorrow,” the top advisor is said to have told the publication, saying that officials do not “feel any fear” of engaging in corruption because the firing of Reznikov and others took over six months after Zelenksy was warned that the Defence Ministry was drowning in graft.
Another advisor is reported to have told the magazine that by the time Zelesnky acted “it was too late” and that the corruption scandal had not only become known in Western capitals but also among soldiers on the frontline, where troops reportedly began making lewd jokes about “Reznikov’s eggs” — a reference to the accusation that the Defence Ministry had vastly overpaid for basic items such as eggs and coats for soldiers.
The report notes claims by officials that Zelensky’s office has worked to stop giving the impression, at least, of corruption. Working under what are described as strict directives to “avoid the slightest perception of self-enrichment…Don’t buy anything. Don’t take any vacations. Just sit at your desk, be quiet, and work”, members of his staff are claimed to be paid just $1,000 per month and sleep in bunker rooms the size of prison cells.
RELATED: ‘Nobody Believes in Our Victory Like I Do.’ Inside Volodymyr Zelensky’s Struggle to Keep Ukraine in the Fight
Zelensky leaves a contentious meeting with U.S. Senators in the Capitol on Sept. 21.Shutterstock
Published October 31,2023
Volodymyr Zelensky was running late.
The invitation to his speech at the National Archives in Washington had gone out to several hundred guests, including congressional leaders and top officials from the Biden Administration. Billed as the main event of his visit in late September, it would give him a chance to inspire U.S. support against Russia with the kind of oratory the world has come to expect from Ukraine’s wartime President. It did not go as planned.
That afternoon, Zelensky’s meetings at the White House and the Pentagon delayed him by more than an hour, and when he finally arrived to begin his speech at 6:41 p.m., he looked distant and agitated. He relied on his wife, First Lady Olena Zelenska, to carry his message of resilience on the stage beside him, while his own delivery felt stilted, as though he wanted to get it over with. At one point, while handing out medals after the speech, he urged the organizer to hurry things along.
The reason, he later said, was the exhaustion he felt that night, not only from the demands of leadership during the war but also the persistent need to convince his allies that, with their help, Ukraine can win. “Nobody believes in our victory like I do. Nobody,” Zelensky told TIME in an interview after his trip. Instilling that belief in his allies, he said, “takes all your power, your energy. You understand? It takes so much of everything.”
RELATED: Taking the measure of corruption in Ukraine
Corruption among Ukraine’s leaders is an issue that worries Biden administration officials far more than they’d care to publicly admit, according to a confidential U.S. strategy document. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo
Published October 2,2023
Whether Ukraine can prove that it’s fighting corruption well enough may be a deciding factor in Congress’ continued support for sending aid — and is increasingly becoming a White House focus.
Corruption among Ukraine’s leaders is an issue that worries Biden administration officials far more than they’d care to publicly admit, according to a confidential U.S. strategy document obtained by our own NAHAL TOOSI. The long-term plan lays out numerous steps Washington is taking to help Kyiv root out malfeasance and otherwise reform an array of Ukrainian sectors.
It also stresses that corruption could cause Western allies to abandon Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion, and that Kyiv cannot put off the anti-graft effort.
But the White House could be doing a better job at communicating the country’s efforts so far, said MAKSYM SKRYPCHENKO, president of the Transatlantic Dialogue Center, a Ukrainian think tank.
Last month, he met with about 40 congressional offices on Capitol Hill, including members of the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs committees, he said, noting that most offices sympathetic to former President DONALD TRUMP didn’t accept his meeting requests.
“A recurring observation from the congressional offices was that the Biden administration is notably poor at effectively communicating Ukraine’s progress” on corruption, he told NatSec Daily. “To be fair, they also struggle in communicating other matters, but given our focus on Ukraine, this is particularly concerning for me.”
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle told him they feel the corruption claims are overstated, he said — without naming any specific names, and that they can’t point to many major corruption cases. But, the lawmakers noted, it’s still undermining support for Ukraine in Congress.
The fact that corruption is a major topic right now is a bad sign for Ukraine’s supporters.
“It’s important to keep pushing back against potential corruption, and [President VOLODYMYR] ZELENSKYY seems to be aggressive in doing that,” the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ MARK CANCIAN told NatSec Daily. But “talking about how much they are doing to reduce corruption implies that there is ongoing corruption.”
Not to mention, there have been several high-profile examples of corruption this year, such as Ukraine’s defense ministry coming under scrutiny amid war profiteering accusations in January, military recruitment chiefs being fired for stealing money and other illegal activities in August, and two top officials being implicated for embezzlement later that month.
Because of the feedback Skrypchenko received, his think tank is in the process of drafting a report outlining Ukraine’s anti-corruption achievements since 2014. Congressional offices told him they either lack the info or don’t have the time to wade through extensive reports from the State Department or USAID.
