The United States is considering billions more in aid to Ukraine to support its war with Russia. However, some ** of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense were exposed to be involved in a military fraud case involving nearly $40 million. The incident raised concerns about corruption in Ukraine and raised questions about the need for continued funding for Ukraine among American conservatives.
According to a statement by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on Saturday, the Ministry of Defense** conspired with employees of a Ukrainian** company to embezzle money that would have been used to buy 100,000 mortar shells. The money was paid in August 2022 after the Ministry of Defense signed a contract worth $39.6 million with the Lviv Arsenal. The contract stipulates that the Lviv Arsenal should transfer the money to an enterprise registered abroad for the delivery of artillery ordered by Ukraine. However, the money never reached foreign companies, but was dispersed into several bank accounts in Ukraine and the Balkans.
The SBU has filed charges against five people involved in the case, each of whom faces up to 12 years in prison. Another person was trying to flee the country**. The Prosecutor General of Ukraine said that the stolen funds had been seized and returned to the Ministry of Defense.
This scam is the latest blow to Ukraine** Volodymyr Zelensky. He had won voter support in 2019 with an anti-corruption platform, but after the war broke out, he found it not easy to solve the problems that have been rampant in Ukraine's history. Contract fraud is only one aspect of corruption in the Ukrainian army, and there are many other problems.
In 2023, the New York Times reported that one copy is worth about 9The $800 million ** contract was delayed, and employees of the Ministry of Defense ** and the Lviv Arsenal were suspected of involvement. The Ukrainian Congress found that some of the payments used to pay for ** simply disappeared, often going to the accounts of the dealers in question. In addition, Ukraine** has also revealed that the Ukrainian army often pays for basic goods and supplies**. In one case, two Ministry of Defense**, an undersecretary and a procurement executive, were killed for buying ** eggs.
Zelensky, in order to combat corruption in the army, has taken a number of measures. In August 2023, he relieved the Ukrainian army of all 24 regional recruitment directors for alleged large-scale bribery and **. He posted a paragraph on social ** explaining his decision. "This system should be run by people who know exactly what war is and why it is treason to play tricks and bribes during war," he said. ”
From February 2022 to August 2023, Ukrainian prosecutors have opened more than 100 investigations into nearly thirty recruits. Some have already been found guilty of taking ** bribes that saved some Ukrainian men from being drafted and sent to the front. In one case, two recruiters were accused of falsifying documents for money, listing some men as unfit for military service, involving amounts of up to $10,000. In June 2023, the Ukrainian Pravda newspaper reported that Yehor Smirnov, a military conscription from Odessa, southern Ukraine, had spent millions of dollars on real estate and luxury cars on the Spanish coast. Smirnov was sent to the front for a crime.
The problem of corruption in Ukraine is a concern for the United States. The United States is one of Ukraine's largest donors, having provided more than $10 billion in aid to Ukraine since 2014. Biden and Senate leaders are looking for a compromise that would allow Congress to pass more aid payments to Ukraine. Most of the additional funding of about $60 billion is aimed at assisting Ukraine. However, American conservatives oppose this, arguing that not a single penny of Ukraine should be provided until a full audit of Ukrainian funds is carried out. They point out that Ukraine is a money laundering machine used to launder money for dirty politicians, the most prominent example of which is Biden's son, Hunter Biden. They also questioned the ability of the United States to regulate the use of these funds to ensure that they were not misused or wasted.
Biden is trying to put U.S. Southern Border Security funding together with Ukraine money, Israeli money, Hawaii disaster relief money to enlist congressional support. However, conservatives have already introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to block further funding for Ukraine until the United States regains control of its southern border. They also called on Ukraine to engage in peace talks with Russia in order to end the war. They say that if former Donald Trump wins this year's election, they will lead the way in stopping funding these wars, stop sending the United States to war zones, and force the parties to sit down at the table and negotiate.