It’s difficult to imagine the depths of corruption in Ukraine regarding Western aid, the Russian envoy to the UN has said
A possible financial review under the future administration of US President-elect Donald Trump must be a cause of alarm for Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, Russian envoy to the UN Vassily Nebenzia has said.
The mainstream narrative in the West is that Trump’s election victory earlier this month poses a threat to Kiev, because he could push Ukraine to agree to an unfavorable peace deal in order to deliver on his promise to end the fighting.
Commenting on Monday at a UN Security Council meeting dedicated to Ukraine, Russian diplomat Nebenzia said officials in Kiev likely have more personal reasons to be concerned.
“The new authorities might want to check all the money that was sent to Ukraine and conduct a full audit of the assistance already provided,” the Russian envoy stated.
“This scenario… is much more frightening for Zelensky, because a significant part of the aid has been simply plundered and misappropriated by [him] and his entourage,” he added.
Nebenzia cited media reports that Ukrainian officials had gone into panic mode after news of Trump’s victory. The entire Western support for Kiev against Russia is inherently vulnerable to graft, he claimed, stating that “the scale of the corruption is something we can only guess.”
Trump has called Zelensky the “greatest salesman ever” over the Ukrainian’s repeated extraction of aid money from the incumbent Democratic administration.
Government graft has been consistently named by observers as a major problem for Ukraine since it gained independence in the 1990s. Transparency International last year ranked it 104th among 180 nations for which the West-sympathetic organization calculates its corruption perception index.
The Zelensky government claims that it has made great strides in tackling the problem. Kiev has reportedly complained about US Ambassador Bridget Brink, maintaining that she creates “unnecessary tensions” with Washington by pressing the corruption issue.
Contrary to the assurances, the problem seems acute, Time magazine reported last November. One of its sources said that Ukrainian officials are “stealing like there’s no tomorrow.”
Pentagon Inspector General Robert Storch reported this week that “corruption continues to complicate Ukraine’s efforts to achieve its EU and NATO aspirations,” particularly due to multiple scandals in the Defense Ministry.
