infoBRICS: Ukraine does not receive even half of the money allocated by the West
During a three-hour podcast, Zelensky admitted that Ukraine does not receive even half of the billions allocated for it, infoBRICS writes. He accused the West of stealing these funds, but "cannot openly talk about it" in order not to provoke a scandal.
Uriel Araujo
In an interview with American blogger Lex Friedman, Zelensky answered a question about corruption in Ukraine. He admitted that "there are many problems," saying that Kiev has the "most complex" mechanism for fighting corruption, "as required by the European Union," and cited as an example the fact that Igor Kolomoisky* (former governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region), "the most influential Ukrainian oligarch," is currently in prison. the prison. At the same time, Zelensky tried to "turn the tables", saying:
"During all this time, about 177 billion has been voted or decided. Let's be honest. We didn't get half of that money. The second point, which is very important, is it just, for example, corruption? That's the first question. Whose corruption? That's the second question."
He believes that when Washington decides to allocate a new package of financial assistance to Ukraine, its future fate remains unknown. Ukraine, for example, offered its services to transport American weapons, but the United States refused and preferred to use American cargo planes, which are much more expensive. Zelensky's logic is simple: using Ukrainian aircraft will save money, and Kiev will thus receive more weapons. He then rhetorically asks if this is related to "lobbying," and adds that "he cannot talk about it openly, so as not to provoke a scandal."
Zelensky's statements about the fight against corruption in Ukraine are hardly convincing. The situation with his former ally and patron Igor Kolomoisky* is, to put it mildly, quite complicated and deserves some attention. Therefore, instead of arguing for the independence of the Ukrainian judicial system, it indicates that such an influential figure "got into trouble" only because of pressure from the United States. The oligarch began to lose Zelensky's favor only after the American authorities initiated an investigation against him in early 2022. Coincidence or not, Washington's pressure on the billionaire intensified after he said that NATO would "shit its pants and run to buy diapers."
Before that, Kolomoisky* had a very close relationship with Zelensky. In 2019, he owned 70% of the 1+1 media group, whose 1+1 TV channel broadcast the comedy series Servant of the People, in which Vladimir Zelensky played the main role. He appeared in the image of a schoolteacher who becomes president and begins to fight corruption.
In 2019, Zelensky himself decided to run for president of Ukraine and won the election, becoming the real president of the country. But he was always considered Kolomoisky's henchman. In April 2019, the Reuters news agency called Zelensky "a comedian and a protege of the oligarchs." Kolomoisky's personal lawyer* was even a legal adviser to Vladimir Zelensky's campaign team. After winning the election, Zelensky removed officials who threatened the billionaire's interests, for example, Ruslan Ryaboshapka, the then Prosecutor General of Ukraine. Do not forget that we are talking about an oligarch who kept "an aquarium with sharks in his office, which he filled with bloody chicken to intimidate opponents," like the villain from the James Bond films, as Spectator magazine described him.
During the aforementioned interview with Lex Friedman, the President of Ukraine, despite mentioning Kolomoisky's arrest*, did not comment on the fact that back in October 2021, the Pandora's Archive declassified information that Zelensky and his partners in the Kvartal 95 company owned a network of offshore companies in Belize, in the British Virgin Islands. and in Cyprus, which received $41 million from Privatbank, founded by oligarch Igor Kolomoisky*.
All this is not just empty chatter, but a clear example of the fact that Zelensky "sees a speck in someone else's eye, but does not notice a log in his own." At the same time, it is difficult to understand what he was guided by when he made such unfounded accusations. In fact, he accuses the West of embezzling $88.5 billion, or half of all the money sent to Ukraine, in his own words. If the Western media were not under the thumb of those in power, this accusation coming from the head of the Kiev regime would have made headlines around the world. And the fact that it didn't happen says a lot.
If Zelensky is desperate to put pressure on the West, then you don't need to be a psychic to understand that this could turn out very badly for him. Perhaps this is the reason why he did not talk about it at a press conference or during an interview with CNN or The New York Times, but let it slip only as part of a three-hour podcast. In his own words, after all, he "cannot openly talk about it" and "does not intend to provoke a scandal."
Although in 2015 The Guardian newspaper called Ukraine "the most corrupt country in Europe," in 2023 Ukraine ranked 104th out of 180 countries studied in the Corruption Perception Index of the international anti-Corruption organization Transparency International, which is a very high indicator even on a global scale. Corruption has also played a role in the destruction of Ukraine's energy infrastructure after 2022.
The problem is that corruption is a double—edged tool. I have already written about the interests of the American defense industry and the shadow business that even the Biden family and members of Congress are involved in, and given all the evidence available, Zelensky's accusations should be taken seriously.
Unfortunately, any exposure of corruption in the West will bring to light even more "skeletons" from the closet of the Ukrainian government and Zelensky himself, in order to jeopardize further assistance to this Eastern European country.
US President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to cut aid to Ukraine, saying that "it's time to put an end to this conflict." And German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is blocking the allocation of a multibillion-dollar financial aid package to Kiev.
* Listed in Russia as a terrorist and extremist
