Tipsheet

Questions About Ukrainian Corruption Are Becoming Harder and Harder to Ignore

Katie Pavlich
Katie Pavlich  |  September 06, 2023 1:00 PM

As Russia's war against Ukraine slogs on, questions about rampant corruption inside the eastern European country are becoming unavoidable. 

A new story in the New York Times asks, "Where is the money?" 

"The removal of Ukraine’s minister of defense after a flurry of reports of graft and financial mismanagement in his department underscores a pivotal challenge for President Volodymyr Zelensky’s wartime leadership: stamping out the corruption that had been widespread in Ukraine for years," the paper reports. "Official corruption was a topic that had been mostly taboo throughout the first year of the war, as Ukrainians rallied around their government in a fight for national survival. But Mr. Zelensky’s announcement Sunday night that he was replacing the defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, elevated the issue to the highest level of Ukrainian politics."

"It comes at a pivotal moment in the war, as Ukraine prosecutes a counteroffensive in the country’s south and east that relies heavily on Western allies for military assistance. These allies have, since the beginning of the war, pressured Mr. Zelensky’s government to ensure that Ukrainian officials were not siphoning off some of the billions of dollars in aid that was flowing into Kyiv," the story continues. 

So far the United States has sent the country more than $75 billion and the White House can't account for where it all went or may be going. 

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"The Pentagon said Tuesday that it overestimated the value of the weapons it has sent to Ukraine by $6.2 billion over the past two years — about double early estimates," the Associated Press reported in June. 

During the White House press briefing on Tuesday, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan attempted to justify continued support to the country as corruption and theft allegations pile up. A new $26 billion funding request is struggling to get a vote on the House floor. 

"We are working closely with the Congress, as you know, right now, on a supplemental funding package that the President has submitted seeking funding through the end of the year. We've been working with both the Senate and the House.  We've had constructive conversations on a bipartisan basis in both chambers.  We believe we will be able to secure the necessary funding as we go forward," Sullivan told reporters. "I'm not going to speak to assurances per se, but the conversations have been constructive, they've been positive, they've been substantive.  And, and we anticipate being able to work our way through to a sound package so that Ukraine can get what it needs."

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Ukraine today pledging additional dollars with little accountability or an audit.